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Some members of Congress are raising concerns about conditions in immigration detention centers for people with disabilities. In a letter to DHS, they cited the case of a double amputee who said he had to crawl across filthy bathroom floors to shower. Reporter Emily Wu Pearson of member station WABE reports on how his family and his community rallied to bring him home.
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MILDRED PIERRE: Free Rodney Taylor now.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Free Rodney Taylor now.
PIERRE: No justice.
EMILY WU PEARSON, BYLINE: Protesters gathered in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in downtown Atlanta on an early March morning, chanting for the release of a man named Rodney Taylor. The 47-year-old is from a suburb of Atlanta and was detained by ICE in 2025. This was one of at least a dozen protests led by his wife, Mildred Pierre.
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PIERRE: No family should have to stand by, helpless, hoping - whether their loved one who is detained is denied medical care, if they will survive or not.
PEARSON: Taylor came to the U.S. from Liberia on a tourist visa when he was 2 years old through Shriners International, a fraternal organization of Freemasons best known for funding Shriners hospitals for children. Taylor received 16 surgeries for congenital limb deformities. Today he uses two prosthetic legs and is missing three fingers on his right hand.
ICE arrested him based on a burglary conviction from nearly 30 years ago when he was a teenager, but the state of Georgia pardoned him for that in 2010. DHS, in a statement, said Taylor was, quote, "consistently uncooperative with detention and medical staff regarding all accommodations" provided. Taylor and his attorney deny that. They say that the accommodations were inadequate for the severity of his disability. When ICE arrested him, Taylor and his wife, Mildred Pierre, were about to take their young daughters to elementary school.
PIERRE: When Rodney first got detained, the kids' schoolteachers kept calling. Why'd the kids cry and cry? They had different crying spells. They were sad.
PEARSON: For Christmas, the family covered the house with Snoopy-themed decorations. Taylor saw the decor on a video call, his wife said.
PIERRE: And I showed him. He was like, oh my God. It's so beautiful. I wish I was there. I said, well, we're not taking it down till you come home.
PEARSON: While she waited to see if Taylor would be released, she spoke at the Georgia Capitol and with members of Congress in D.C. who advocated for Taylor's release. Here's Georgia Democratic Representative Lucy McBath in March questioning then-Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem.
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LUCY MCBATH: Rodney must crawl through that muck and squalor of feces and bodily fluids to enter and exit the shower.
PEARSON: ICE said any claims of, quote, "subprime conditions" were false. Pierre has now become a resource for other wives in similar situations.
PIERRE: This type of work is not for the faint of heart. You have to be fearless, bold and have the audacity. I have the audacity.
PEARSON: And she says you have to have faith that what you're doing will pay off. Taylor was suddenly released earlier this year after more than a year in detention. It's not clear why. ICE did not respond to questions about his release. Taylor's attorney says ICE released him on conditional parole and didn't give a reason. I asked Taylor if he ever got to see those Snoopy Christmas decorations.
RODNEY TAYLOR: Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. We've got pictures around the Christmas tree and everything.
PEARSON: Today Taylor's legal status is still up in the air. He wears a wrist monitor and has frequent check-ins with ICE as conditions of his release. The couple says they now want to help other people with a disability get out of ICE detention.
For NPR News, I'm Emily Wu Pearson in Atlanta.
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