Borderland: The Line Within, CBP’s Raid on a Humanitarian Aid Camp

 

Borderland: The Line Within, a documentary directed by Pamela Yates and produced by Skylight Pictures, made its theatrical debut on May 3. Borderland takes viewers through a gripping narrative of how immigration enforcement agencies—from the U.S.-Mexico border to places well within our nation’s interior—have created what the film calls the “border industrial complex,” a system “that transforms the suffering of immigrant lives into corporate profit .”

The producers of the film included footage from a raid that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) carried out on a humanitarian aid camp set up in the Arizona desert that provided water and shelter to migrants crossing the border. The filmmakers obtained videos recorded by CBP officers with the help of the American Immigration Council through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, highlighting the importance of transparency to understand CBP’s tactics.

The documentary follows the stories of Kaxh Mura’l and Gabriella Castañeda across a four-year period. Mura’l is an Indigenous Mayan and environmental defender who fled his native Guatemala to seek political asylum in the U.S. after he received death threats. Castañeda is an undocumented immigrant who lost her DACA status in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the documentary, she resists U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) efforts to deport her.

More information https://inmigracionyvisas.com/a6041-Borderland-The-Line-Within-Border-Patrol-raid.html

Women In ICE Detention Given Hysterectomies Without Their Consent

 

By: Katy Murdza - www.immigrationimpact.com

A whistleblower has come forward to expose serious allegations of medical malpractice at a for-profit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Ocilla, Georgia. The whistleblower—who was until recently employed as a nurse at the Irwin County detention center—worked with several non-governmental organizations to file two complaints with Department of Homeland Security oversight agencies.

The first complaint details the facility’s failure to take COVID-19 precautions and provide adequate medical care. The second contains allegations that women detained at the facility were given hysterectomies—sometimes without their consent—at an unusually high rate.

LaSalle Corrections is a private prison company that the federal government contracts to operate the Irwin County Detention Center that is the subject of the complaint. It operates a total of 18 facilities across the southern United States, which can hold up to 18,000 people collectively.

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4937-Women-in-ICE-Detention-Given-Hysterectomies.html

US Citizens Caught In Immigration Dragnet As Enforcement Gets More Aggressive

 

By Walter Ewing

There is a disturbing trend in aggressive immigration enforcement that is appearing more and more recently: the detention of U.S. citizens. There are clear indications that U.S. immigration agents are locking up people they assume must be non-citizens, but who are in fact U.S. citizens.

These abuses transcend any presidential administration. But there are indications that the Trump administration has been particularly aggressive in detaining and then challenging U.S.-born individuals about their citizenship status. According to a report released in July that analyzes ICE enforcement data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), there has been a striking increase in the number of U.S. citizens “encountered” by ICE during the Trump years. 

In the first year after President Trump took office, ICE encountered 27,540 U.S. citizens. In comparison, during the last year of the Obama administration, ICE encountered 5,940 U.S. citizens. This trend suggests that some U.S. citizens who may “appear deportable” in the eyes of some U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have become increasingly vulnerable to immigration enforcement in recent years. 

Consider three recent examples: 

• In March 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers detained a 9-year-old girl who is a U.S. citizen for 32 hours without her parents present. The girl lives in Tijuana and crosses the border every day to get to and from school in the United States. On this particular day, a CBP officer decided that she didn’t resemble the photo in her passport and detained her. Why it took nearly a day and a half to verify her U.S. citizenship and release her is unclear.
• Throughout June and July 2019, an 18-year-old U.S.-citizen was detained for 23 days by CBP. He wasn’t given a chance to show officials his U.S. birth certificate until he was transferred to ICE custody—although even that didn’t immediately get him out of detention. He described conditions in the CBP facility as so bad that he considered allowing himself to be deported to Mexico just to get out.
• A Marine veteran with PTSD was held by ICE for three days in Michigan in December 2018. He was briefly being held in jail for an altercation at a hospital when ICE requested that he be turned over to them for removal from the country.

Incidents such as this are not limited to the Trump administration. For instance, a U.S. citizen in New York was detained by ICE for two years beginning in 2016. He was being held in jail for a drug offense and, on the day of his release, was incorrectly informed that he was not a U.S. citizen and therefore subject to deportation. It is mind-boggling that it took officials two years to figure out he was a citizen. 

There are many reasons to be critical of over-zealous immigration enforcement in the United States—such as the fact that enforcement is focused on non-violent individuals with no criminal records or relatively minor records. However, locking up U.S. citizens takes over-zealousness to a whole new level. 

Source: http://www.immigrationimpact.com
https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4370-US-Citizens-Caught-in-Immigration.html

No Freedom, Education, Or Privacy: Over 2,000 Immigrant Children Detained

By Melissa Cruz

Over 2,000 immigrant children are being detained by the Trump administration at a “temporary emergency” facility in Homestead, Florida. All of the children at the facility have been designated by the government as “unaccompanied” minors. However, not every “unaccompanied” child came to the border alone—some were intentionally separated from their guardians by U.S. officials.

Under normal procedures, children are supposed to be transferred from temporary facilities to the care and custody of permanent, state-licensed Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters within 20 days. Instead, many children have been detained at this “temporary shelter” for months at a time. The average length of stay has fluctuated between 64 and 89 days in recent months. 

Why are children being detained at Homestead for so long? One significant factor is that it’s harder for immigrant family members to get custody of their children due to several policy changes implemented under the Trump administration. 

Most of the children have “sponsors”—parents or immediate family members already in the United States—who are waiting to take them into their custody. But the administration has made the sponsoring process even more difficult, often using it to arrest and ultimately deport family members that come forward. This information-sharing with immigration enforcement, which ORR agreed to scale back after outcry, has forced children at Homestead to languish in shelters for longer periods of time. The conditions at Homestead—whether the stay is one week or one month—are not suitable for children. A research team from Amnesty International toured the facility in April 2019, and in a damning report, revealed how Homestead compromises the safety and well-being of the children in its custody. 

As of April 2, 2019—the date of Amnesty International’s inspection—Homestead housed children ranging from 13- to 17-years-old. Around 75 percent were boys and 25 percent were girls. Most fled from dangerous conditions in Central American countries. 

Amnesty International reports that Homestead looks and feels like an “industrial-scale facility” and is made up of “…brick and mortar buildings; metal shipping containers converted into offices for legal and other services and administration; and soft-sided structures.” 

Children are housed in two campuses. The South Campus houses 13- to 16-year-olds and the North Campus holds 17-year-olds. 

At the South Campus, there are 144 beds per floor. There are 12 children per room. They sleep in bunk beds and only have one shower and one toilet for the group, with no privacy. The North Campus—where the 17-year-old children are detained—is a former military vocational building. It has eight “bays” filled with bunk beds; each bay houses around 144 children. There are 30 only showers and a row of toilets in each bay. 

The children have highly restrictive schedules. In contrast to other ORR facilities, the children at Homestead begin their days at 6:30 a.m. and end at 10:00 p.m., with only one hour and 50 minutes of free time for recreation. They spend most of their days indoors and must wear identifying bar codes at all times. At permanent shelters, children are allowed more outside time. 

Their access to resources is limited. For instance, staff members said that girls must submit a service form request if they need sanitary pads. 

Other required services—such as the ability to safely disclose allegations of sexual abuse within the facility—are woefully inadequate. There have been at least six allegations of sexual abuse made by children since the facility opened in 2018, at least two of which involved staff members. Children can use pre-programmed telephones in the facility to report abuse. But those telephones are in an open-air cubicle in a recreation space—just five feet away from a ping pong table. 

In interviews, children who had stayed at Homestead said the education they received was poor. During Amnesty International’s visit, for instance, students were copying out the words of the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance in a math class. 

The facility does not hire certified teachers like permanent ORR shelters. Homestead also does not follow the Miami-Dade County public school curriculum and instead relies on teaching developed by its for-profit, private contractor. 

Amnesty International concluded that the Trump administration allows Homestead to defy these legal standards of care by designating it a “temporary” shelter instead of a permanent one, even though some children are detained there for close to a year. No child should be forced to live like this. The administration is ignoring what is in the best interests of these children by housing them in prison-like conditions. 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4351-Over-2000-Immigrant-Children-Detained.html

ICE Quietly Expands Immigration Detention In The Deep South

By Katie Shepherd www.immigrationimpact.com

While members of Congress were struggling to reach a bipartisan deal in February in order to end the government shutdown, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quietly expanded its complicated network of immigration jails—this time in the Deep South. 

In late June, ICE started using three jails in Louisiana and Mississippi, with bed-space for 4,000 people. Just two years ago—at the beginning of the Trump presidency—ICE had the capacity to hold only about 2,000 people. This expansion increase’s ICE’s capacity in Louisiana and Mississippi by 50 percent. 

All three of the detention centers are run by private prison companies: Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi is run by CoreCivic, the Catahoula Correctional Center in Louisiana is run by LaSalle Corrections, and the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center is run by GEO Group. 

Private prison companies are driven by financial incentive and so historically have cut corners in order to maximize profit. As a result, privately run jails are chronically understaffed in order to save money and incarcerated individuals may have more limited access to critical services, including medical care and adequate food. 

This expansion is particularly concerning given the long and horrifying track record of human rights abuses, staff mistreatment, and inadequate medical care in these facilities in recent years. Deplorable conditions at one of the jails—the Adams County prison—contributed to a 2012 riot that left one guard dead and at least a dozen people injured. 

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in May that it would no longer use Adams County to hold federal inmates, giving ICE—and CoreCivic, which now runs Adams County—the chance to take over. 

In fact, the horrifying conditions in facilities just like these were uncovered by Mother Jones in the summer of 2016, when an investigative reporter went undercover for four months as a guard at a CoreCivic-run jail in Louisiana. 

Ramping up ICE detention in the Deep South is particularly problematic given the remoteness of the facilities, and their distance from available attorneys, expert witnesses, and loved ones. The region is notorious for particularly harsh immigration judges. Many of the hearings are likely to be heard by video teleconference (VTC), which disadvantages immigrants. Attorneys and advocates have complained that video technology often breaks down, and the lines may have bad sound quality. 

Congress must fully exercise its constitutional oversight authority and hold ICE accountable for repeatedly overspending its detention budget. Further, the Trump administration must decrease its over-reliance on private prison companies, which systemically cut corners at the cost of the well-being and health of the individuals in their custody. Until that happens, individuals in facilities like Adams County, Catahoula, and South Louisiana Processing Center will continue to suffer out of sight of attorneys. 

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4323-ICE-Expands-Immigration-Detention.html

New Court Filing Highlights the Government’s Official “Turnback Policy” for Asylum Seekers

Written by Karolina Walters

Eight new asylum seekers joined a lawsuit last week that challenges U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials’ widespread and well-documented practice of turning back asylum seekers at U.S. ports of entry (POE) along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The plaintiffs also amended the complaint in the lawsuit with new facts documenting an official “Turnback Policy” that formalizes CBP’s unlawful practice. Each new plaintiff has been subjected to the Turnback Policy, fears for his or her safety in Mexico, and wishes to seek asylum in the United States. 

As explained in the new filing, under the Turnback Policy, CBP officials assert an unverified “lack of capacity” and then utilize a variety of methods to prevent and delay asylum seekers from reaching ports of entry and making their asylum claims. These methods include coordinating with Mexican immigration authorities or other third parties to implement a “metering” or waitlist system; instructing asylum seekers to wait on the bridge, in the pre-inspection area, or at a shelter in Mexico until there is adequate space at the port of entry; or simply telling asylum seekers that they cannot be processed because the port of entry is “full” or “at capacity.” 

Plaintiffs reference internal CBP documents showing that the Turnback Policy existed as early as May 2016. However, high-level officials in the Trump administration confirmed the existence of the policy, and escalated it, in the spring of 2018 in reaction to news that a large group of asylum seekers, referred to as a “caravan,” sought to present themselves at the San Ysidro point of entry in California. 

Notably, the filing cites DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s May 2018 statement confirming that the government was “metering” asylum seekers and referring to the asylum process as a “loophole” that must be fixed. Recently, a report by DHS’ Office of the Inspector General also confirmed the use of “metering.” 

Plaintiffs’ allege that CBP officials reinforce the sanctioned Turnback Policy with the widespread practices documented in the original complaint, including misrepresentations about the U.S. asylum process, threats, abuse and physical force, coercion, outright denials of access, and physically obstructing access to POEs. Together, the resulting restriction of access to the asylum process, through outright denials and unreasonable delays, puts asylum seekers at imminent risk of grave harm or deportation. Such denial of access to the U.S. asylum process violates both U.S. and international law. 

The lawsuit is filed as a class action, meaning that the individual plaintiffs seek to represent other, unnamed asylum seekers who seek or will seek to claim asylum at a point of entry and are similarly denied access. Thus, this lawsuit may have lasting impact on how our government will treat those seeking protection at our borders. 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3928-Turnback-Policy-for-Asylum-Seekers-in-United-States.html

Surprise Government Inspection Finds Nooses in ICE Detention Center, Doctors Refusing to Treat Immigrant Detainees

Written by Melissa Cruz

When government officials conducted a surprise inspection of the immigration detention center in Adelanto, California this May, they were met by many signs of serious neglect and abuse, including the chilling sight of nooses made from twisted bed sheets hanging in multiple cells.

This abuse and neglect are highlighted in a new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) and show how Adelanto staff’s blatant disregard of federal detention standards created a dangerous environment for immigrant detainees. 

Those held at the facility include asylum seekers, individuals caught up in raids, and others identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as eligible for deportation. Some have just crossed the border while others have been in the United States for decades—though many are detained for years as their cases are decided. 

The OIG report instructs ICE and GEO Group, the private prison company that operates the center and houses the 2,000 ICE detainees, to focus on three particular areas for immediate improvement. 

According to the report, OIG is most concerned about: 


Nooses Hanging in Detainee Cells

During OIG’s inspection, officials found braided bed sheets hanging from vents in 15 out of the 20 cells they visited. Both staff and detainees referred to these bed sheets specifically as “nooses.” 

When asked why they were not removing the nooses, several guards said they were “not a high priority”—despite the seven suicide attempts that occurred at the facility in a 10-month span last year. 

One detainee told the inspectors he had witnessed several people try to commit suicide by tying their bed sheets to the vents. “The guards laugh at them and call them ‘suicide failures’ once they are back from medical,” the detainee said. 


Improperly Segregating Detainees

ICE detainees can be removed from the facility’s general population under certain circumstances, like if they commit a serious rule violation or need medical attention. 

Adelanto staff are required to follow these ICE standards for segregation—yet detainees are often removed from general population for no clear reason in a violation of their rights. 

OIG officials noted that every detainee that was removed during their inspection had been inappropriately placed in segregation. These detainees also had their family visitations revoked and were no longer allowed to purchase toiletries from the commissary, neither of which are listed as an available penalty in ICE’s detention standards. 

In other cases, communication assistance was not available as required. Inspectors noted one such instance during their visit, in which a segregated blind man with limited English proficiency was not given documents he could read in braille or understand. Additionally, OIG officials found that no segregated detainees were provided documents translated into their native languages. 


Failure to Provide Adequate and Timely Medical and Dental Care

OIG officials found that staff physicians, nurses, and mental health providers did not perform their required daily one-on-one evaluations with detainees. The report noted that medical staff would often pass by detainees’ cells, stamp their name on detainees’ records that hang outside of cells, and move on without ever stopping to conduct an evaluation. 

Both internal reviews and detainee testimonials also showed that people waited months to see a doctor for persistent health problems and were not given their prescribed medication. 

Additionally, dentists on-site refused to perform basic dental care. According to the center’s logs, no detainees received cleanings or fillings for four years. Many detainees’ teeth would fall out before their appointments—they were either wait-listed for months at a time or dentists would cancel the appointment without warning. 

Some preventative dental equipment, like floss, is only available through the commissary. When asked what detainees should do while waiting for an appointment, one staff dentist suggest that detainees “could use string from their socks to floss if they were dedicated to dental hygiene.” 

OIG officials recommended ICE conduct a thorough investigation of the detention center to ensure the safety, rights, and health of detainees. ICE said it will comply and has scheduled a contractor to conduct an inspection beginning next week. 

These findings by OIG are disturbing. They show the importance of surprise inspections and the need for congressional oversight of ICE. 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3916-Doctors-Refusing-to-Treat-Immigrant-Detainees.html

Two Border Patrol Agents Charged With Murder Highlights The Need For Robust Hiring Standards

Written by Joshua Breisblatt

In rural communities throughout the United States , immigration has been a demographic lifeline that offsets—at least in part—the dwindling number of native-born Americans. In fact, as a report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) explains, there are many rural areas in which schools, hospitals, and businesses would have shut their doors if not for an influx of immigrants . 

CAP analyzes 2,767 “rural places”—characterized as such by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Of all the rural places that fit this definition and are the focus of the CAP report, 68 percent (or 1,894) have experienced a shrinking population since 1990 due to a declining number of native-born residents. Of these 1,894 locales, more than three-quarters (78 percent) would have experienced an even greater population decline if not for immigration. 

Places that are experiencing declines in population size eventually find that they are no longer able to sustain the same level of essential services that they could when the population was larger. As CAP explains, the result can be school consolidations or school closures; hospital closures and reductions in healthcare services more broadly; and closures of various small businesses and public institutions such as grocery stores, gas stations, and libraries. This downward spiral can be avoided if immigration offsets the shrinking native-born population. 

Citing the USDA, the CAP report notes that while immigrants are adding to the populations of rural areas in general, the number of native-born residents has declined due to falling birth rates (a trend also observed in the United States as a whole), the desire among many young adults in rural areas to move to larger cities with more opportunities, and a sharp increase in mortality rates among working-age adults (due in large part to the opioid crisis). Plus, as the USDA also observes, more than 500 rural counties nationwide have been absorbed by expanding urban areas since 1974. 

As the CAP report highlights, the contributions of immigrants to rural areas as a whole go far beyond simply increasing population size. There is no shortage of rural communities in which immigrants provide much-needed labor on farms , open new small businesses , and serve as healthcare providers in medically underserved areas. While it is true that some communities fight against these demographic trends, there are others that treat immigration as a vital economic resource to be managed—not feared. 

For instance, the CAP report singles out one rural place in particular—St. James, Minnesota—as an example of a community that actively seeks to integrate immigrants into its economic and social fabric. When Latino immigrants began arriving in St. James in the 1970s and 1980s to work at the Tony Downs Foods Company, political and business interests crafted a welcoming strategy so that immigrant workers and their families would feel at home. Among other initiatives, these leaders tried to make services more accessible to the newcomers through English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in schools and translation of important documents into Spanish. 

Unfortunately, some rural locales have not followed in the footsteps of St. James in treating immigration as a resource. CAP observes that one of the more notorious cases is that of Hazelton, Pennsylvania , where a local ordinance passed in 2006 fined landlords $1,000 per day for renting to undocumented immigrants and a five-year business license suspension for any employer hiring an undocumented worker. 

The ordinance was eventually struck down by a federal judge and the local government was ordered to pay more than a million dollars in legal fees. In hindsight, even some fervently anti-immigrant residents of Hazleton have reconsidered their positions. Mayor Joseph Yanuzzi, a supporter of the ordinance, came to realize that immigrants were revitalizing the small business community, filling what would otherwise be vacant apartments, and keeping school enrollments higher than they otherwise would have been. 

The CAP report emphasizes that many rural communities can and do devise smart strategies for integrating newcomers into the fabric of their economy and civic life. This speaks not only to the humanity of the native-born population in these locales, but to the economic (and demographic) importance of immigrants themselves. 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3905-Two-Border-Patrol-Agents-Charged-With-Murder.html

Medical Neglect And Abuse Reported At Atlanta Immigration Detention Center

Written by Tory Johnson

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently uses hundreds of detention centers throughout the country to hold individuals in immigration proceedings. Many of these facilities have a concerning record, with appalling conditions and treatment of individuals under ICE’s custody. A recent report from Project South and Georgia Detention Watch highlights such issues at the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC), which is governed by the city council and mayor . 

The report Inside Atlanta’s Immigrant Cages reflects 18 months of research, interviews, and facility visits. Drawing on first-hand accounts from individuals held at ACDC, the report documents numerous instances of poor conditions, medical neglect, and abuse. While the facility is temporarily not accepting new detainees from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a June order from the Atlanta mayor, ACDC is still in operation. 

The report calls for the closure of ACDC , pointing to dozens of accounts with reported violations of detention standards and human rights. Among the serious allegations highlighted in the report are: 

• Improper or limited medical and mental health care; lack of due process.
• An unsanitary environment; rampant use of lockdown and isolation.
• Exploitative labor practices.
• Demeaning or offensive treatment by detention officers.

For example, only five out of the 38 detained immigrants interviewed for the report said they were satisfied with the medical care they received at ACDC. Among the interviewees who reported medical neglect was a man with health complications from diabetes and a surgical infection. According to the report, he sought medical care but had to wait 20 days to even see a nurse. The report describes his experience: 

“…the handle in the accessible shower in his unit at ACDC broke while he was transferring himself out of the wheelchair onto the shower bench. As a result, he fell, hit his head and knee, and re-opened his surgical injury. Despite his screams of pain, no guards came to his aid, and he had to wait approximately three hours for the supervisor to return before he was taken back to the hospital.” 

Two months later, ACDC medical staff took away his wheelchair though he repeatedly presented the hospital’s order stating his need for crutches. 

The conclusions reached in the report, and the documented experiences of those detained, reveal a stark reality that contradicts the “acceptable” rating the facility received in its annual inspection. The accuracy of these inspections—conducted for ICE by a contracted, private company called the Nakamoto Group—has been heavily scrutinized by federal investigators on multiple occasions. 

For example, an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General found major inconsistencies and shortcomings with Nakamoto inspections . The investigation concluded that: 

“…inspections do not fully examine actual conditions or identify all compliance deficiencies… neither the [ICE] inspections nor the onsite monitoring ensure consistent compliance with detention standards.” 

The report strengthens existing evidence revealing persistent allegations of abuses and violations of established standards at detention centers, including disturbing accounts from other detention facilities in Georgia . 

This uptick in alleged offenses is one of the many factors causing some elected officials and leaders to reject proposals for new detention centers or to reconsider existing contracts, which also are a costly burden for taxpayers. Immigration detention—which is civil in nature under the law—should not amount to punishment. 

The concerning conditions at ACDC documented in the report add to mounting evidence of problems at detention centers. Hopefully elected officials and leaders at all levels of government will take this research seriously and make decisions regarding detention that truly reflect the vision and values of our communities and nation. 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3888-Medical-Neglect-And-Abuse-in-Immigration-Detention-Center.html