Courtesy of Mildred Taylor
When Rodney Taylor, a double amputee and a barber in Loganville, was arrested by ICE officers outside his home in January 2025, his wife, Mildred Danis-Taylor, became a determined immigration activist nearly overnight. With help from El Refugio, an advocacy nonprofit adjacent to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Mildred led a tireless campaign to get Rodney released. He was freed last May, though his case is still pending.
“When I started this journey to advocate for my husband, I didn’t know where to find resources,” Mildred says.
Now an advocacy fellow with El Refugio, Mildred wrote the Family Self-Advocacy Action Guide, available on El Refugio’s website, which offers tutorials on locating a detained loved one, contacting elected officials to ask for help, and petitioning the court for someone’s release. On November 1, El Refugio volunteers will share the printed guide at Oakland Cemetery’s Dia de Los Muertos festival.
Before Rodney’s detention, the Taylors were raising their blended family of seven children and juggling careers—Rodney as a barber and Mildred as a community health advocate helping people navigate the healthcare system. “Life before detention was fun and loving,” Mildred says.
Rodney came to the United States from Liberia on a medical visa when he was two. He underwent multiple surgeries to address issues with his limbs, and by the time he was 10, he’d had both his legs removed and had one functional hand. ICE detained Rodney because he was convicted of burglary when he was a teen—even though he’d been pardoned by the State of Georgia for the crime in 2010.
The drive to Stewart Detention Center was nearly three hours from Loganville, so when Mildred visited Rodney, she often stayed at El Refugio’s hospitality house.
The nonprofit advocates for detainees and helps draw attention to their concerns: Mildred says that Rodney, who uses prosthetic limbs that require regular care, suffered health problems due to poor treatment at Stewart. “[Rodney] did not receive the support to calibrate his prosthetics or receive his new ones in a timely manner,” Mildred says. “He’s still in chronic pain.” ICE’s Atlanta field office did not respond to a request for comment about Rodney’s case.
In June 2025, El Refugio helped Mildred host a rally for Rodney in front of the downtown Atlanta ICE office. “That was the beginning of rallies, press conferences, and me being bold enough to go to Washington, D.C.,” Mildred says. In March 2026, she accompanied U.S. Representative Lucy McBath to a House Judiciary Committee meeting, where McBath questioned then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about Rodney’s alleged mistreatment. (Secretary Noem told Mildred she would look into Rodney’s case, but she was removed from her post by President Trump before Mildred heard back from her.)
Mildred’s advocacy guide instructs families on what to do before and after ICE detention. There are email templates and phone scripts for contacting elected representatives, tips for navigating ICE bureaucracy, and an explanation of legal procedures such as habeas corpus. “Although immigration detention is a very lonely journey, no one should face it alone,” Mildred says.
This article appears in our November 2026 issue.
