Detention Snapshot: Winter 2022/2023
This publication contains a summary of acts of resistance against the detention system from detained people and documented human rights abuses that occurred in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) detention from November 2022 to February 2023. The organizing efforts and abuses described in this report were primarily reported to Freedom for Immigrants’ (FFI) free and unmonitored National Immigration Detention Hotline, which received roughly 600-1,000 calls per week in this period, and by community-based detention Visitation Groups within FFI’s National Visitation Network. An important group of advocates are individuals in detention (“detained advocates''), who courageously organize and communicate with FFI and other organizations to report the unfair and inhumane treatment they experience despite the known risk of retaliation.
While this Snapshot does not capture the entirety of the resistance efforts carried out by detained people, nor contains all of the abuses endemic to immigration detention, this quarter we highlight: (1) resistance efforts led by individuals in detention; (2) how ICE uses transfers to perpetuate abuse and retaliation; and (3) systemic medical neglect. In elevating these experiences, we continue to show that the only way to truly avoid the human suffering immigration detention causes is to stop detaining individuals.
Internal Resistance and Organizing
Since the inception of the detention system, detained advocates have organized against abusive detention conditions. Detained advocates resist through various strategies, including: organizing and participating in hunger strikes; reporting abuse; and conducting letter signing campaigns, among many other tactics. Over the winter, FFI recorded multiple mass hunger strikes at various detention centers, including Cibola County Detention Center (Milan, NM), across California detention facilities, and at the Otero County Processing Center (Chaparral, NM). Per La Resistencia, hunger strikes at Northwest ICE Processing Center (Tacoma, WA) resulted in ICE meeting some of the strikers’ demands.
California Mass Strikes
Since last April, detained advocates have been leading a labor strike at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility (Bakersfield, CA) and Golden State Annex (McFarland, CA). The workers’ demands include the reinstatement of in-person visitation, and receiving a minimum wage, proper healthcare, better quality food, and individualized custody reviews for their release. In response to unaddressed demands, approximately 70 individuals escalated to a hunger strike in February 2023.
Webb County, Laredo, and Rio Grande Detention Centers (Laredo, TX)
In another instance of collaboration between advocates inside and outside detention, detained people held across three Texas detention centers filed a complaint in response to the November 2022 ICE data leak with the support of five organizations, including Laredo Immigrant Alliance and FFI. The complaint highlights how the information leak, which included that of 48 detained advocates, violates their confidentiality rights and places them in danger.
Retaliatory and Reckless Transfers
Transfers often happen en masse, with little to no explanation. According to Visitation Group Laredo Immigrant Alliance, hundreds of individuals were transferred from Webb County Detention Facility (Laredo, TX) to nearby detention centers in Laredo, without explanation. These ad-hoc transfers inflict a huge toll on the physical and psychological health of detained individuals, and hinders the ability to organize amongst advocates inside and outside of detention.
Nye County Detention Center (Pahrump, NV)
In November 2022, about 30 people were transferred from Otay Mesa Detention Center (San Diego, CA) to detention facilities in Nevada. According to detained advocates, the vast majority of people transferred had severe or chronic medical issues and were waiting for medical appointments at Otay Mesa. Detained advocates reported that the transfers were retaliatory, as they had been organizing to receive appropriate medical care and better detention conditions. ICE stated that individuals were transferred because medical costs are lower in Nevada. However, the transfers further delayed medical care as medical records were not transferred. The Nye County Detention Center is so overcrowded that detained advocates are forced to sleep on the floor next to the urinals. Notably, one of those transferred was Erik Mercado, who co-authored an op-ed in a San Diego newspaper regarding abuse and retaliation in the detention system.
Torrance County Detention Facility (Estancia, NM)
In March 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) stated that ICE should immediately stop holding people in ICE detention at Torrance due to their failure to provide a “safe, secure, and humane environment.” In October 2022, six U.S. Senators signed a letter urging ICE to terminate its contract with the privately-run facility. After the number of people in ICE custody dwindled to nearly zero, ICE transferred more than 100 people to the Torrance County Detention Facility (Estancia, NM) between December 23, 2022 and January 3, 2023 in a clear act of retaliation for collaboration between advocates inside and outside of the facility working to shutter Torrance for good. The transfers occurred just days after the last 10 people detained at Torrance (Los Últimos Guerreros) penned an open letter demanding their freedom and the termination of the ICE contract. Additionally, Innovation Law Lab released a report in February 2023 exposing the torturous conditions at the facility. This is the same facility where Kesley Vial died by suicide in August 2022.
Medical Neglect
The experience of being detained fundamentally harms the health and wellbeing of those in detention. In ICE custody, even those in otherwise good health can face severe and sometimes life-threatening medical neglect. FFI often observes that individual’s preexisting conditions flare up in detention, and detained people are forced to advocate and organize to gain access to medical care, from routine prescriptions to medical emergencies.
Medical neglect in immigration detention includes: lack of care for chronic and severe issues; denial of medications, surgery, and dental care; and refusal of care after physical abuse by facility staff. The latter is exemplified by the complaint filed at Baker County Detention Center (MacClenny, FL) on behalf of a man still suffering from unaddressed medical issues after being pepper sprayed and physically assaulted in ICE custody. Over the period covered in this Snapshot, detained advocates reported denial of treatment for seizures, diabetes, PTSD, broken bones, heart conditions, and glaucoma. Most of these reports came after explicit denial and significant delays in treatment.
Buffalo (Batavia) Service Processing Center (Batavia, NY)
ICE regulations systematize medical neglect. In fact, detained people have to wait a year until they can see a dentist, with the timeline being reset every time an individual arrives at a new facility. For example, at the Buffalo Service Processing Center, a detained advocate reported unattended severe and chronic dental pain. In response to the reckless endangerment of their health, including dental care, advocates detained at the Buffalo Service Processing Center reported they penned a letter detailing their experiences.
Nye County Detention Center (Pahrump, NV)
Instead of treating a detained advocate with a severe case of trench foot, a condition which can lead to gangrene and amputation if left untreated, ICE is refusing medical care and placing the person in medical confinement. After ICE transferred about 30 individuals with chronic and severe medical needs from other ICE facilities to this detention facility, it is still failing to provide appropriate medical care as the local hospital is refusing treatment. Instead of using the agency’s discretion to release individuals, a detained advocate claimed that ICE will transfer individuals to the East Coast for medical treatment. Detained advocates believe ICE is trying to avoid incurring the costs of the required treatment. A complaint filed on February 23 documents this medical neglect.
don’t wait, act now
Educate lawmakers on the effects of immigration detention and highlight bills they can support (below). Here you can find out who your Senators and/or Representative are and their contact information.
Legislation to Support to Address Immigration Detention
Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act (Federal)
New Way Forward Act (Federal)
Relevant News This Fall
Detention Center in Berks County, PA shut down on January 31, 2023: “After years of visitation to support, advocate for, and organize with the families and then adult women at Berks, we are beyond thrilled that this detention center is finally being shut down.” - Tonya Wenger, Visitation Coordinator with FFI Visitation Group Shut Down Berks Interfaith Witness and organizer with the Shut Down Berks Coalition.
Over 120 community Organizations call on ICE to stop detaining and deporting non-citizen survivors and witnesses of federal prison staff sexual abuse: Over 120 organizations from across California and the United States sent an open letter to ICE leadership demanding that the agency stop detaining and deporting non-citizens of prison staff sexual abuse.
FFI releases “Trafficked & Tortured: Mapping ICE Transfers” report: The report tracks 70 unique instances of “circular transfers,” in which individuals are transferred, sometimes thousands of miles, between multiple detention facilities before returning back to the same facility they had been detained originally. The findings underscore how ICE, failing to operationally justify its transfer practices, spends millions of taxpayer dollars annually to senselessly shuffle individuals back and forth under tortuous conditions, often in retaliation against those who speak out against the agency’s abuses.
Innovation Law Lab and other groups released a report on the inhumane conditions at Torrance County Detention Facility: “The report details the use of solitary confinement for individuals experiencing suicidal ideation in cells they describe as ‘Torture Rooms;’ widespread sleep deprivation due to uninhabitable conditions; another attempted suicide in January, 2023; and patterns of retaliation against individuals who speak out or engage in civil disobedience.”
48 individuals fleeing persecution, and whose data was compromised by ICE on November 28, 2022, file a CRCL Complaint: With the assistance of Laredo Immigrant Alliance, FFI, and three other organizations, the complaint highlights how the data leak violates their confidentiality and places these individuals and their families in danger.
Continuing to highlight the need to close Baker County Detention Center in MacClenny, FL: A man detained at the facility filed a complaint with the office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He continues to suffer from unaddressed medical issues after being pepper sprayed and physically assaulted in ICE custody.