Detainees Sue Conditions on California’s Largest ICE Site – CalMatters

from Nickel Dura and Kayla MichalovichCalMatters

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Seven detained in an immigration detention center in California City sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging the facility was contaminated by leaking sewage, infested with bugs and denied people access to food, water and their lawyers.

The case was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, also argued that detainees did not have adequate clothing for the freezing desert nights, nor adequate medical care for life-threatening conditions. The lawsuit alleges that detainees with mobility issues do not have access to wheelchairs and in some cases cannot bathe or dress themselves.

The plaintiffs are seeking to turn the lawsuit into a class action on behalf of all detainees housed at the California Immigration Processing Center, which is about 75 miles east of Bakersfield and is run by the private prison company CoreCivic.

“In their haste to store hundreds of men and women in this isolated facility, the defendants have failed to provide the basic human needs of the people for whose lives and well-being they are legally responsible,” the lawsuit alleges.

ICE opened the immigration detention center on the site of a closed prison and began accepting detainees in August. On average there was about 480 people held at the detention center every day in September, with the facility capable of holding up to 2,560 people. The lawsuit claims 800 people were housed there.

An ICE spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit for this story.

In September, a state disability rights group held a two day check of the facility and found that its operators failed to dispense drugs for life-threatening conditions and failed to schedule timely surgeries for people who needed them.

CalMatters reported on conditions at the detention center last month. Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said in a written statement at the time that the site provides solid medical care. He said these services adhere to “standards set by our government partners”.

The accelerated opening of the detention center was part of the Trump administration’s plan to implement the largest deportation program in US history. California City’s mayor previously told CalMatters that the federal government opened the facility without the proper permits or business license as required by state law.

“In its rush to expand capacity, ICE cobbled together a patchwork of county jails, private prisons, and newly remodeled facilities across the country. The rapid and haphazard growth of the detention system outpaced any meaningful system of accountability or oversight,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit was filed by the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit organization that focuses on conditions in California prisons; along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the advocacy group California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and the law firm Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP.

Conditions in immigration detention centers have long been the subject of debate complaints and cases. California counties have the ability to inspect immigration detention centers, though few do. Three of the four counties in California that host the facilities have no checks were carried out.

Seventeen people have died at ICE facilities this year two in California. The agency’s official list of deaths in custody documents 15. Two subsequent deaths—one each in California and New York have not yet been added to the ICE list.

One plaintiff in the case, Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, claims he was denied medication for a heart condition for days. The lawsuit alleges that the lack of medication led to his hospitalization twice.

“During the last hospitalization, a doctor told Mr. Roque Campos that he could die if this happened again,” the lawsuit states. “Mr. Roque Campos has not yet seen a cardiologist and is still not receiving his medication regularly.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.