Federal immigration agents and private prison officers tortured a number of Cameroonian men to coerce them into signing their own deportation orders, including leaving one with several broken fingers, a number of immigrant rights groups say in a complaint filed with the Department for Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), and DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG).
”The complaint describes the coercive tactics, including threats of violence and direct physical abuse to obtain submission, forced taking of fingerprints while individuals are in restraint, and the use of pepper spray against those who decline to sign their deportation papers,” the groups said in the complaint. The abuses, which reportedly began late last month, have not stopped: Advocates say officials could be set to unjustly deport more than 100 Black immigrants, most of them from Cameroon, within hours.
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“Specifically, we express serious concern regarding recent reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) officers in Adams County Correctional Center, along with the Facility Administrator and CoreCivic guards, have tortured Cameroonian individuals in their custody in attempts to coerce them to sign immigration documents through pressure, threats and—in several cases—excessive use of force, including physical abuse and pepper spray, resulting in severe injury,” the groups said in the complaint.
The complaint horrifically describes ICE officers physically restraining detained men who refused to sign the deportation orders, and then using their thumbprint as a signature. One Cameroonian asylum-seeker, identified as “D.F.” in the complaint, said an ICE agent threatened him with torture before physically assaulting him.
“An ICE agent came to see me Sunday, September 27, 2020 to try to get me to sign a deportation document,” D.F. said. “I said I didn't want to sign a deportation order. I said I am afraid to go back to my country. He promised me he would torture me. Monday, September 28, 2020, he came again while I was outside to try to force me to sign, I refused to sign. He pressed my neck into the floor. I said, Please, I can’t breathe.’ I lost my blood circulation. Then they took me inside with my hands at my back where there were no cameras.”
This isn’t the first time ICE has used violent force of this manner against Cameroonian detainees, either. Mother Jones reported earlier this year that officers “climbed” onto the neck of a Cameroonian asylum-seeker jailed in Louisiana after detainees protested their ongoing detention amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“This pattern of coercion and unwarranted use of physical force by ICE officers is abusive, unlawful, and tantamount to torture,” Freedom for Immigrants, Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention, Southern Poverty Law Center, Cameroonian American Council, Detention Watch Network, Natchez Network, Haitian Bridge Alliance, and Families for Freedom said in the complaint. Advocates including Amnesty International USA warn that as it carries out its abuses, ICE could now be set on mass deporting more than 100 Black immigrants, including many Cameroonian men, to a possible death sentence.
“Given the current conditions in the country, it is extremely likely that anyone who is returned to Cameroon will face a high risk of being detained, beaten, disappeared, tortured, or possibly even killed,” Amnesty international USA’s Adotei Akwei said.
Advocates including Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services are urging calls to legislators and emails to ICE demanding an immediate halt these unjust deportations. And Black immigrants need support now more than ever. “Over the last year, dozens of Black immigrants have reported being subjected to retaliatory solitary confinement, as well as violent repression at the hands of ICE agents & guards through pepper spray, rubber bullets, and force,” the organization continued. “These are not just statistics. They are lives.”
