Free Louis
Louis is a 45-year-old Black man from Cameroon currently detained at ICA-Farmville Detention Center in Virginia. Louis came to the United States in 2017 to make a life for his family and dreams of being able to support his 12-year old son in Virginia.
Louis has been detained at Farmville for over a year. Last summer, he contracted COVID-19 due to Farmville Detention Center’s negligence -- leading to one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in a detention center in the country. He is now suffering serious side effects. Louis lost all hearing in his right ear and is losing it in the left. He is developing severe glaucoma in his eyes and at times is unable to see. Specialist doctors have told him that he needs specific medical devices to slow the deterioration of his hearing and eyesight, but ICE has refused to take him to follow up appointments or allow him access to the doctor-recommended medical devices.
Now, ICE is trying to deport him to Cameroon, where he will not be able to access the treatment he needs to save his sight and hearing. Louis has filed several release petitions on his own but they have all gone unanswered. Louis dreams of making a life for himself and his son in the United States and reconnecting with his community in Virginia.
Louis was charged with a crime he maintains he did not commit. Despite completing his 3-month sentence, he was taken into ICE custody. Louis is at the intersection of systems of racist policing, the injustice system, and immigration detention that are steeped in anti-Blackness and xenophobia.
Louis needs $7500 to pay an attorney to vacate his past criminal conviction. Support Louis’s fundraiser so that he can support his family, access critical and time-sensitive medical care, and continue fighting his immigration case outside of detention.
Free Them All VA is launching a social media campaign to share a GoFundMe for an attorney for Louis, and to call on ICE to #FreeLouis. Read Louis’s personal account and listen to him share his testimony and then take a moment to donate. Please share Louis’s story with your networks.