Surprise inspection of ICE facilities continues to expose inhumane and dangerous conditions

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday July 09, 2020 · 10:42 AM PDT

2020/07/09 · 10:42

Protesters drive in a caravan around Immigration and Customs Enforcement El Paso Processing Center to demand the release of ICE detainees due to safety concerns amidst the COVID-19 outbreak on April 16, 2020 in El Paso, Texas. - One detainee has already tested positive in the nearby Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, and more cases are feared to appear in the detention centers where social distancing is often not an option. (Photo by Paul Ratje / Agence France-Presse / AFP) (Photo by PAUL RATJE/Agence France-Presse/AFP via Getty Images) — Protesters drive in a caravan around Immigration and Customs Enforcement El Paso Processing Center to demand the release of ICE detainees due to safety concerns amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

Surprise inspections of a number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities by a government watchdog found leaking toilets and other inhumane conditions that “not only violate ICE detention standards, but, in some instances, may also pose a health and safety risk to detainees,” a new report said.

Among the serious findings are that officials failed to properly address complaints of transphobic and homophobic abuse by staff against detained people at one facility, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general wrote in the report released this week. The findings said that while conditions “varied among facilities,” the unannounced inspections “revealed several prevalent issues.”

Inspectors carried out their surprise visits at facilities that have been previously criticized by immigrant rights advocates for mistreatment of detainees, including Northwest Detention Center in Washington state, El Paso Processing Center in Texas, and Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico.

“We identified issues with living conditions at El Paso, Cibola, and Baker, such as torn mattresses, worn fitness equipment, leaking toilets and sinks, and inoperable hot water in detainee cells,” the inspector general said. Inspectors said the leaks posed health risks to detainees, and noted that when they pointed out the torn mattresses to staff at Cibola, the items were replaced during that same visit (which raises questions about whether the facility knew detainees needed these items and just chose to not do anything about it until it was forced to).

Cibola is particularly notable in the report because it had already been accused of failing to provide transgender detainees with adequate medical attention and treatment, including access to blood pressure medication and hormones.

The inspector general’s report said that while more than a dozen complaints of verbal abuse by Cibola staff against transgender detainees had been forwarded to a local ICE office and Cibola management, “neither could provide us documentation detailing what investigative steps were taken, whether the investigation substantiated the alleged misconduct, or the specific actions taken against staff members accused of verbal abuse.”

“At the time of our visit in June 2019, detainees told us the verbal abuse was continuing,” the report continued.

In the year since the surprise inspections, it’s safe to say that living conditions at immigration detention facilities everywhere have only become more dangerous because the DHS inspector general has also said it will stop conducting in-person oversight for now due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, “which observers worry will diminish independent inspections,” BuzzFeed News reported earlier this month.

”In an email reviewed by BuzzFeed News, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said for the time being, they will only visit facilities when they determine they can do so safely,” the report said. “In the meantime, inspectors will continue to conduct their work virtually.”

If it seems ICE can’t be trusted to protect detainees in this scenario, it’s because it can’t be trusted. Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas said following her inspection of ICE facilities last month that she believes officials distributed face masks to detainees only because they knew legislators were going to be visiting for an inspection. Now imagine ICE operating knowing that they may not be getting an in-person surprise inspection for a while.

"They have always tried to keep people out and keep what goes on inside these detention centers a secret," Migration Policy Institute’s Randy Capps told BuzzFeed News. "To me it's a hear no evil, see no evil approach."

Surprise inspection of ICE facilities continues to expose inhumane and dangerous conditions

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