Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have blocked immigrants at one of the most notorious detention facilities in the nation from making calls to advocates out of supposed “safety concerns,” The San Diego Union-Tribune reports. “It was not immediately clear to what behavior or incidents the statement referred.”
What is known is that Otay Mesa Detention Resistance and Pueblo Sin Fronteras have been critical to the survival of detainees at California’s Otay Mesa Detention Center, helping them with funds for commissary, being a sympathetic ear, and shining a light on the inhumane conditions inside. Now, that lifeline is being blocked. “This is dangerous because we don't know what abuses are happening inside if we can't receive calls,” Otay Mesa Detention Resistance tweeted.
Officials at the for-profit prison blocked the line at ICE’s order as it remains hard-hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic, with at least 164 detainees and 11 workers testing positive for COVID-19 per ICE’s most recent numbers. Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, the first person to die from the virus while in ICE custody, had been held at Otay Mesa for nearly six months before dying at a hospital on May 6. His family said he continued to languish at the facility after an immigration court cruelly denied his release.
”Cristina Malo, who is part of Otay Mesa Detention Resistance’s phone team, said that being able to call people on the outside gives those locked inside hope ‘in a place that’s very hopeless sometimes,’” The Union-Tribune continued. “She said that by having access to her group’s phone lines, detainees are less isolated from the rest of the world and can speak up if their rights are violated.” Al Otro Lado, an organization that provides critical legal assistance to asylum-seekers, detailed further dangers in ICE’s decision to shut off communication.
“We also realized we weren’t getting calls from our clients,” the organization continued. “We suspected that maybe our attorneys' numbers had been blocked. And now there is proof to confirm our suspicions.”
ICE released more than 70 people from the facility in early May to help mitigate the pandemic, but only because of a lawsuit seeking the release of medically vulnerable detainees. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties said that officials at first claimed to the court that they identified only eight at-risk people, but just a day later “filed a supplement with the court saying they ‘acquired new information’ from ICE that ‘51-69 ICE detainees’ are at ‘higher risk for severe illness due to COVID-19,’” a statement said.
If it seems like officials have a pattern of secretive or deceptive pattern of behavior here, that’s because they do.
“Alex Mensing of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, another group that works closely with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance to support detainees, said his phone number was also blocked,” The Union-Tribune continued. “He was able to verify it by calling Telmate, the company that operates the phone lines detainees pay to use. Telmate declined to comment on the record.” According to the report, advocates plan a protest against the decision to block the numbers outside the facility on Thursday.
“As we know from our own battle with ICE after the agency blocked our free, confidential Hotline, the US immigration detention system thrives in secrecy,” advocacy group Freedom for Migrants tweeted. “They have an incentive to block communication.”