Current:Home > BackClass-action lawsuit alleges unsafe conditions at migrant detention facility in New Mexico-LoTradeCoin
Class-action lawsuit alleges unsafe conditions at migrant detention facility in New Mexico
View Date:2024-12-23 19:20:23
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A new class-action lawsuit alleges that U.S. immigration authorities disregarded signs of unsanitary and unsafe conditions at a detention center in New Mexico to ensure the facility would continue to receive public funding and remain open.
The lawsuit announced Wednesday by a coalition of migrants’ rights advocates was filed on behalf of four Venezuelans ranging in age from 26 to 40 who have sought asylum in the U.S. and say they were denied medical care, access to working showers and adequate food at the Torrance County Detention Facility, all while being pressed into cleaning duties, sometimes without compensation.
The detention center in the rural town of Estancia, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the Mexico border, is contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to accommodate at least 505 adult male migrants at any time, though actual populations fluctuate.
Advocates have repeatedly alleged in recent years that the the facility has inadequate living conditions and there is limited access to legal counsel for asylum-seekers who cycle through. They have urged ICE to end its contract with a private detention operator, while calling on state lawmakers to ban local government contracts for migrant detention.
“The point is that ICE can’t turn a blind eye to conditions in detention facilities,” said Mark Feldman, senior attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center, which is among those representing the plaintiffs. “They maintain congressionally mandated oversight responsibility over conditions wherever immigrants are detained.”
The detention center failed a performance evaluation in 2021, and the lawsuit alleges that ICE scrambled to avoid documentation of a second consecutive failure that might discontinue federal funding by endorsing a “deeply flawed, lax inspection” by an independent contractor.
The lawsuit says the agency disregarded contradictory findings by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General and a contracting officer at ICE that suggested continued unhealthy conditions and staff shortages.
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that the agency does not comment on litigation. Last year Chief of Staff Jason Houser said ICE would continuously monitor the facility and noted that it stopped using the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama when expectations there were not met.
CoreCivic, the private operator of Torrance County, had no immediate comment. The company has repeatedly disputed critical findings about operations at the facility and accused government watchdogs and advocacy groups of misrepresenting detention conditions.
As of September about 35,000 migrants were being held in ICE detention facilities across the U.S., while the agency monitors another 195,000 under alternatives to detention as they advance through immigration or removal proceedings, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
The southern border region has struggled to cope with increasing numbers of migrants from South America who move quickly through the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama before heading north.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, are also represented by the ACLU, Innovation Law Lab and attorneys for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
veryGood! (622)
Related
- New Pentagon report on UFOs includes hundreds of new incidents but no evidence of aliens
- TikTok banned on U.S. government devices, and the U.S. is not alone. Here's where the app is restricted.
- As 'Succession' ends, a family is forced to face the horrifying truth about itself
- Ida B. Wells Society internships mired by funding issues, says Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Elton John Details Strict Diet in His 70s
- Ellie Goulding Says Rumor She Cheated on Ed Sheeran With Niall Horan Caused Her a Lot of Trauma
- Emily Blunt’s Floral 2023 SAG Awards Look Would Earn Her Praise From Miranda Priestly
- What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening
- Special counsel Smith asks court to pause appeal seeking to revive Trump’s classified documents case
- 'All the Sinners Bleed' elegantly walks a fine line between horror and crime fiction
Ranking
- Jeep slashes 2025 Grand Cherokee prices
- He once had motor skill challenges. Now he's the world's fastest Rubik's cube solver
- Why Selena Gomez Was Too “Ashamed” to Stay in Touch With Wizards of Waverly Place Co-Stars
- In 'Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge,' Helen Ellis' home life takes center stage
- AIT Community Introduce
- 'Wait Wait' for June 10, 2023: With Not My Job guest Radhika Jones
- Masa, the key to tortillas and tamales, inspires an award-winning documentary series
- Earth, air, fire, water — and family — are all 'Elemental' for Pixar's Peter Sohn
Recommendation
-
Biden EPA to charge first-ever ‘methane fee’ for drilling waste by oil and gas companies
-
Cosmic rays help reveal corridor hidden in Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza – but what is it?
-
Princess Diana Appears with Baby Prince William and King Charles in Never-Before-Seen Photos
-
Debut novel 'The God of Good Looks' adds to growing canon of Caribbean literature
-
More than 150 pronghorns hit, killed on Colorado roads as animals sought shelter from snow
-
Tina Turner's happy ending
-
NAACP Image Awards 2023 Red Carpet Fashion: See Every Look as the Stars Arrive
-
2 Americans dead, 2 rescued and back in U.S. after Mexico kidnapping