Detention Centers

Child Detained By Border Agents After Surgery Reunited With Family

November 6, 2017 Staff, aclu.org Resist! Children, Detention Centers, Immigration, Undocumented

By Staff of ACLU - SAN ANTONIO — The federal government has released 10-year-old Rosa Maria Hernandez. The American Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit seeking to release her from government custody and reunite her with her family. “Rosa Maria is finally free. We’re thrilled that she can go home to heal surrounded by her family's love and support,” said Michael Tan, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Despite our relief, Border Patrol’s decision to target a young girl at a children’s hospital remains unconscionable. No child should go through this trauma and we are working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Rosa Maria, who has cerebral palsy, was en route to gallbladder surgery from her home in Laredo, Texas, to Corpus Christi, when she was stopped at an immigration checkpoint. U.S. Border Patrol followed her to the hospital and camped outside her room until she was discharged. Agents then immediately seized Rosa Maria — who was still recovering in her hospital bed — and jailed her 150 miles away in a facility for children, alone and without her parents. They had no warrant. Rosa Maria had never been separated from her parents, and her medical condition requires constant attention. She has lived in her parents’ care in the United States since she was 3 months old.

Slave Labor Widespread At ICE Detention Centers, Lawyers Say

September 12, 2017 Mia Steinle, www.pogo.org Educate! Detention Centers, Exploitation, Immigration, Labor, Prison Labor, Undocumented

By Mia Steinle for POGO - There are nearly 200 federal detention centers across the country. Here, people suspected of violating U.S. immigration laws wait for court hearings to find out if they’ll stay in the United States or be deported. While they wait, many detainees work as part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “voluntary work program.” They clean, they cook, they do laundry, and they garden—some advocates say they keep the facilities running. For their labor, the detainees are supposed to be paid at least $1 per day, or just under $0.13 per hour for an 8-hour work day. This arrangement has the blessings of both ICE and Congress, the latter of which set the rate over a half a century ago and hasn’t changed it since. However, a growing body of legal experts says paying detainees $1 per day not only violates state minimum wage laws, but also violates the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in all instances except as punishment for people convicted of crimes. Experts argue that, because the majority of detainees have not been convicted of crimes, they should be fairly compensated for their labor. From California to Colorado to Massachusetts, detainees have recently taken legal action against the for-profit companies and local governments that operate the majority of ICE detention centers.

Conditions Worsen For ICE Detainees Following Hunger Strike

September 6, 2017 Robin Urevich, www.capitalandmain.com Resist! Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, ICE, Immigration, Undocumented

By Robin Urevich for Capital and Main - Conditions at Adelanto Detention Center, a privately operated prison currently used to detain undocumented immigrants, are said to be grim. Nine detainees, all of whom came to the U.S. seeking asylum, were so fed up that they staged a hunger strike. Guards responded with violence and pepper spray. Adelanto, Calif. – Nine Central American immigrants sat at a table in their dormitory at the troubled Adelanto Detention Center and asked an officer to deliver a list of their demands to higher-ups. The officer at the for-profit facility in the high desert, north of San Bernardino, refused and ordered them to return to their bunks for an inmate count. Instead, the men linked arms and refused to budge. “We wanted to be heard,” said Josue Lemus Campos, 24, from El Salvador. He said he and his fellow protesters had been quiet and peaceful during their June protest. But when the men refused to move, the officer immediately called for reinforcements who rushed in armed with pepper spray. They began shouting orders in English, a language the men don’t fully understand. Minutes later, the guards doused the nine with pepper spray, aiming at their faces.

100-Plus Immigrants Detained In Tacoma On Hunger Strike

August 18, 2017 Kenny Ocker, www.thenewstribune.com Resist! Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, Immigration, Undocumented

By Kenny Ocker for The News Tribune - More than 100 immigrants detained at the Northwest Detention Center on Tacoma’s Tideflats started a hunger strike Monday to protest conditions at the facility, according to an immigrant rights group. The three-day strike, which started at noon, is intended to get concessions in terms of food, care and legal access, according to a letter from detainees released by the NWDC Resistance. The immigrant rights group held a protest outside the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement site, during which the letter was read aloud. About 30 people attended. The detention center holds more than 1,500 immigrants whose deportation proceedings are ongoing. Geo Group, a private for-profit prison corporation, runs the facility. “It is very likely that ICE and Geo will try to retaliate by switching them (the striking detainees) to other pods or sending them to solitary,” NWDC Resistance leader Maru Mora Villalpando told the crowd. ICE regional spokeswoman Rose Richeson said the office will not retaliate against participants in the “purported ‘hunger strike.’” “ICE fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference and does not retaliate in any way against hunger strikers,” Richeson said.

Women In California’s Largest Immigrant Prison Hold Hunger Strike

June 28, 2017 Victoria Law, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! California, Deportations, Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, Immigration, Undocumented, Women

By Victoria Law for Waging Nonviolence - On June 14, 33 women who have been detained and incarcerated by ICE in California’s Adelanto Detention Facility launched a hunger strike. They were protesting the poor conditions at the facility as well as the policies that were keeping them away from their children and loved ones. The Adelanto Detention Facility, with a capacity of 1,940, is the largest private immigration detention facility in the United States. Run by the GEO Group, ICE pays $111 per person per day for the first 975 detainees, thus guaranteeing GEO a minimum of $40 million each year. If more than 975 people are detained inside Adelanto, the daily rate drops to less than $50 per day. Immigrant rights organizations, such as Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement, or CIVIC, and Detention Watch Network, have sharply criticized Adelanto for its widespread and systemic abuses towards immigrants in custody. Since March 2017, three people have died at Adelanto. Others have reported medical neglect and, on at least one occasion, being punished for seeking medical care. Norma Gutierrez, one of the women on hunger strike has suffered multiple strokes during her incarceration at Adelanto. Instead of receiving proper medical care, she was placed in solitary confinement.

Immigrants In Georgia Detention Centers Put In Solitary For Hunger Strikes

May 8, 2017 Kevin Gosztola, www.shadowproof.com Resist! Detention Centers, Immigrants, Immigration, Undocumented

By Kevin Gosztola for Shadow Proof - Georgia immigrant detention centers frequently put asylum seekers and other migrants into solitary confinement as punishment for going on hunger strike. In a report [PDF] produced by Project South and the Penn State Law Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, human rights abuses at Stewart Detention Center and Irwin County Detention Center are examined. Twenty-four year-old Somali asylum seeker Sadam Hussein Ali describes how he was punished in 2016 at the Stewart Detention Center. “The staff put me in segregation for several days because I participated in the hunger strike that happened around Thanksgiving. They also fired me from my kitchen job for participating in the strike,” Ali said. “About twenty other Somali detainees were put in segregation. In segregation, I couldn’t see outside. I lost track of whether it was day or night. I had to request to use the bathroom every time; then I was chained; and then a guard would walk me to the bathroom in chains. I participated in the hunger strike because we have been detained for far too long. The nurses actually threatened to force-feed all of us on the hunger strike.”

Children As Young As 3 Detained 500 Days And Counting In Disgraceful Immigrant Prisons

March 23, 2017 Sarah Lazare, www.alternet.org Educate! Deportations, Detention Centers, Immigration, Undocumented

By Sarah Lazare for AlterNet - For more than 600 days and two Christmas holidays, Marlene and her seven-year-old son Antonio have languished in indefinite detention at Pennsylvania’s “Berks Family Residential Center,” a glorified term for an immigrant prison. Her child has been granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), which the U.S. government says is supposed to “help foreign children in the United States who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected.” But instead of sanctuary, or even a fair hearing, Marlene and her son face open-ended incarceration and “expedited removal” orders, compounding the trauma they endured when they were forced to flee their home in El Salvador under threat of gang violence.

Lawsuit: Up To 60,000 In Forced Labor In US Private Prisons

March 6, 2017 April M. Short, www.alternet.org Resist! Detention Centers, Immigration, Private Prisons, Slave labor, Undocumented

By April M. Short for AlterNet - As many as 60,000 immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could play a role in a class-action lawsuit accusing a private prison company of violating federal anti-slavery laws. The lawsuit alleges that detained immigrants awaiting court dates were forced to work for $1 per day or for free, on threat of solitary. The suit was initially filed on behalf of nine immigrant plaintiffs in 2014 for $5 million in damages, but was recently moved to class action status. Now, attorneys expect damages to grow substantially, maybe involving tens of thousands of plaintiffs, as Kristine Phillips reports in a March 5 Washington Post piece detailing the lawsuit.

Immigrants Prison Hunger Strike Demand To See Deportation Officer

March 1, 2017 Spencer Woodman, wwwtheverge.com Resist! Deportations, Detention Centers, Hunger Strikes, Immigration

By Spencer Woodman for The Verge - Beginning last April, and picking up in the weeks following the November election, dozens of detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in rural Georgia went on hunger strike in protest of their detention. The private prison corporation that runs the facility, CoreCivic — formerly Corrections Corporation of America — responded swiftly to the expanding demonstration: as immigrant detainees refused to eat, CoreCivic staff began immediately locking them in solitary confinement for their participation in the non-violent protest. According to ICE detainment logs obtained by The Verge through a Freedom of Information Act request, more than two dozen detainees were put in solitary confinement for hunger striking — some simply for declaring they would refuse to eat, even if they hadn’t yet skipped a meal. The logs also show that CoreCivic may have attempted to gather information on hunger strike organizers through cultivating detainee informants, who were later locked in solitary confinement themselves for protection.

History Shows Trump Will Face Legal Challenges To Detaining Immigrants

February 13, 2017 Kevin Johnson, www.theconversation.com Resist! Detention Centers, History, Immigration, Undocumented

By Kevin Johnson for The Conversation - President Donald Trump has followed through on his promise to ramp up immigrant detention as part of immigration enforcement. His executive order on border security and immigration describes a “new normal” that will include the detention of immigrants while they await removal hearings and removal. Trump’s order expressly announces the end of “catch and release” of undocumented immigrants after their apprehension, which allowed them to post a bond and be released from detention while their removal proceedings moved forward. Rather than doing something new, President Trump is simply expanding the use of immigrant detention.

Private Prison In Ohio Makes Room For 2000 ICE Detainees

December 20, 2016 César, www.crimmigration.com Educate! Detention Centers, ICE, Immigration, Ohio, Private Prisons, Undocumented

By César for CrImmigration - Yesterday, CoreCivic, the new name for the Corrections Corporation of America, announced a new contract with ICE to imprison thousands of migrants in Ohio. CoreCivic/CCA will operate 2,016 beds for ICE at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. CoreCivic/CCA already holds approximately 600 migrants at the same facility on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service. While people being held on behalf of ICE are generally awaiting immigration court hearings, those held on behalf of USMS are held pending federal criminal prosecution. This represents another instance in which ICE helps boost the bottom line for private prison corporations.

Judge Orders Border Patrol Provide Short Term Detainees With Basic Necessities

December 2, 2016 Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, www.immigrationimpact.com Resist! Border, Detention Centers, Immigrant Rights, Immigration

By Aaron Reichlin-Melnick for Immigration Impact - A federal judge ordered the Border Patrol to immediately cease its practice of refusing to provide basic amenities to people detained in Border Patrol holding cells in Tucson, Arizona. The judge cited evidence that shows that detainees are kept in freezing holding cells—often called “hieleras” or “iceboxes” —for days without any access to showers or basic hygiene and are forced to sleep on cold concrete floors with only a thin Mylar sheet. On November 18, Judge David C. Bury ordered the Border Patrol to immediately begin providing any detainee held for more than 12 hours with a mattress...

Getting Immigrants Out Of Detention Is Very Profitable

September 20, 2016 Steve Fisher, www.motherjones.com Resist! Detention Centers, Immigration, Profit

By Steve Fisher for Mother Jones - Sofía was 19 when she fled El Salvador after receiving threats from a drug cartel. In late 2014, she was caught near San Diego by the US Border Patrol and sent to an immigration detention center in Eloy, Arizona. Following eight months in detention, she was desperate to reunite with her mother, who lives in Northern California. Like many detainees, Sofía was eligible for release on bond while awaiting her immigration court proceedings. But her bond, set at $15,000, was far more than she could afford.

Formerly Incarcerated Immigrant Describes Harsh Life On Inside

September 8, 2016 Rebekah Barber, www.truth-out.org Organize! Deportations, Detention Centers, Immigration

By Rebekah Barber for Facing South - When the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last month that it was divesting from private prisons after they were found to be more dangerous than publicly run facilities, immigrant advocates hailed the groundbreaking decision. However, the move would affect only 13 prisons, as most private prisons are run not by the DOJ but by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Immigrant advocacy groups immediately called on DHS to follow suit.

Homeland Security Orders Review Of Privatized Immigration Detention Facilities

August 30, 2016 Jennifer Quigley, www.humanrightsfirst.org Create! Detention Centers, Homeland Security

By Jennifer Quigley for Human Rights First - Washington, D.C. ‑ Following today’s announcement from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson directing the Homeland Security Advisory Council to evaluate whether immigration detention operations conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should phase out private management of immigration detention facilities, Human Rights First is urging for a clean break from private companies. This announcement follows the recent Department of Justice decision to phase out the use of private prisons.

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