This post was written and reported by contributor Dawn R. Wolfe through our Daily Kos freelance program.
Legal and civil rights groups in Michigan have sent a letter to the Calhoun County sheriff and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security asking them to stop denying in-person visits to the approximately 29 Iraqis who are being held by ICE at the Calhoun County Jail. The Iraqis were originally taken by ICE in 2017 with the goal of deporting them because they have past criminal convictions for offenses ranging from marijuana possession to assault. Past administrations have held off on taking action because, in most cases, the offenses are old and many of the Iraqis involved have been in the U.S. for years, or even most of their lives. Additionally, the detainees are members of religious or ethnic minorities and face the likelihood of persecution if they are deported to Iraq.
In June, a federal judge issued an order telling ICE to stop using the threat of indefinite incarceration to coerce the detainees into agreeing to be deported. In August, the ACLU filed a request with the same court, saying that ICE and Calhoun County jail officials are resorting to arbitrary punishments including solitary confinement to coerce the detainees into giving up legal representation. As part of that filing, the ACLU also alleges that ICE has been lying in federal court, saying that the government of Iraq will allow the deportation of the detainees against their will when in fact the opposite is true.
In addition to these alleged abuses and deceptions, the Calhoun County sheriff hasn’t allowed the Iraqis to touch or even be in the same room as their visitors for more than a year.
The ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) allege in their Sept. 27 letter that rather than the kind of visits that usually take place in a jail or prison—during which prisoners and their family members are at least able to briefly hold hands, hug, and look directly into each others' eyes—the Calhoun County jail instead requires that all visits take place by video call. Even family members who show up at the jail in person (during weekdays only) aren't allowed to see their loved ones in person. Instead they, too, must settle for a video call.
While the ACLU and MIRC claim in their letter that this policy is in violation of the Department of Homeland Security's National Detention Standards (NDS), which encourage in-person visits, ICE spokesman Khaalid H. Walls told Daily Kos that the NDS isn't the only set of requirements governing treatment of the immigrants who are taken by his agency.
Instead, Walls said, there are three separate sets of standards at play: the National Detention Standards (NDS), Performance Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) 2008, and PBNDS 2011. According to Walls, “different versions of these three sets of national detention standards currently apply to ICE's various detention facilities,” and the Calhoun County Jail is in compliance with the 2000 National Detention Standards.
For his part, Sheriff Saxton told Daily Kos that the Calhoun County Jail has not offered contact, in-person visits, “for the 25 years that our facility has been open.” Saxton failed to respond to repeated follow-up requests for information on the justification for this policy.
Whether or not the ACLU and MIRC are able to force a change for the Iraqi detainees, the problem of “virtual visitation” is a real and growing one for incarcerated people in America, both citizens and non-citizens alike. According to a Dec. 2017 article in The Guardian, “at least 600 US facilities” were using “Skype for the jailed” at the time of their research.
Dawn Wolfe is a freelance writer and journalist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you‘d like to help support more stories like this through our freelance program, contribute here.