A complaint filed Monday against Santa Ana City Jail in Orange County, California, on behalf of 31 cisgender and transgender women alleges that they are routinely subjected to illegal and degrading strip searches at the facility.
The complaint charges that strip searches "are conducted without reasonable suspicion, sometimes by members of the opposite gender, in view of other detainees, in unsanitary conditions, and have turned into sexual assaults.”
Christina Fialho, co-executive director of the organization representing the women, CIVIC, said the strip searches violate the standards set forth by U.S. Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE). ICE has contracted with the Santa Ana jail since 2009, paying the facility nearly $40 million to detain immigrants.
"They're not being done as a matter of reasonable suspicion," Fialho said of the searches, explaining that the women are being searched not only upon first entering the facility but whenever they see their immigration attorney or are brought back from immigration court.
"So they're being penalized every time they see an attorney or go to court," she said. Fialho added that no consideration is given to women who have have experienced sexual assault and rape, such as asylum seekers, or older women who experience chronic pain due to injuries. They are also conducted under deplorable conditions—sometimes without consideration for whether a woman is menstruating, for instance.
Additionally, trans women are not allowed to choose whether they would prefer to have a male or female officer conduct the search, even though the Santa Ana facility is the only detention center in the nation with a formal unit dedicated to detaining sexual minorities. It was created after a 2011 complaint was filed on behalf of 13 LGBT clients by the National Immigration Justice Center.
Even though ICE has contracted with the Santa Ana facility, Fialho said ICE officials claim they have no control over its policies. The complaint urges the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) of the Department of Homeland Security to "immediately investigate" the allegations. Fiahlo said the searches are also a violation of California and federal law.