STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July, 11, 2024

CONTACT:
James Woo, Advancing Justice-Atlanta, jwoo@advancingjustice-atlanta.org

July 11, 2024

The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas

Secretary

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Re: Pattern of Deteriorating Immigration Detention Conditions Amid Expansion Efforts

Dear Secretary Mayorkas,

Our immigrant and civil rights organizations write to draw your attention to recent policy changes and other decisions across the immigration detention system that violate the basic rights and humanity of immigrant communities, particularly people who are currently detained. We urge you to reverse these decisions and work towards fulfilling your stated commitments to dignity and humane treatment of all people, including those who immigrate to our nation. We also request an immediate engagement with agency officials to discuss these recent changes.

Our Urgent Concerns

Specifically, we write to raise concerns regarding: 1) deteriorating conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, including the agency’s recent decision to eliminate a program that provided 520 minutes of free phone calls to people in ICE custody; 2) the intent to re-start intakes at the Adelanto facility in California; 3) plans to dramatically expand the number of ICE detention facilities nationwide, as demonstrated in the recent “Multi-State Detention Facility Support” Request for Information (RFI) and 4) the decision to close the Dilley detention center in Texas only to fund the addition of 1600 detention beds elsewhere.

By working to expand a detention system already plagued by abuse and negligence and simultaneously imposing additional barriers that curtail the ability of people in detention to access the outside world as conditions inside continue to deteriorate, the Biden administration flagrantly breaks the promises it made four years ago to end private detention at the federal level, reduce reliance on immigration detention, and create a more humane immigration system. Detained people, their loved ones, and advocates continue to report on conditions that have worsened over the last four years.

Amid Increasingly Deadly Conditions in ICE Facilities, New Policies Compound Abuse and Retaliation

As conditions in ICE detention have deteriorated, more detained people are increasingly in harm’s way. Since the start of the Fiscal Year, eleven people have died in ICE detention–more than double the number of deaths in the prior year. The most recent death occurred just last month, yet another example of ICE’s failure to provide adequate medical and mental health care to detained people. As the ACLU, American Oversight, and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) 2 recently found, 95% of deaths in immigration detention were preventable or possibly preventable if ICE had provided clinically appropriate medical care. Researchers at Harvard Law School and PHR also recently documented that ICE is increasingly placing people in solitary confinement, at an average time of 27 days, and uses solitary confinement arbitrarily as a form of punishment, including as a form of retaliation for protesting conditions. Similarly, Immigration Equality, the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), and Human Rights First (HRF), recently documented that LGBTQ and HIV positive immigrants in detention face sexual abuse, physical assaults or sexual harassment, and are targets of widespread verbal and physical abuse. These findings build on a lengthy record of a lack of basic medical care, abusive conditions that disproportionately impact Black immigrants and other vulnerable groups of people in ICE detention, and inadequate inspections processes.

Amid these deteriorating conditions, in June ICE implemented the decision to revoke free phone call access to people in detention. The 520 free minutes of phone calls given to each person each month in immigration detention facilities nationwide served as a lifeline for seeking support from family and friends, finding counsel, and reporting abuses. ICE itself has claimed in litigation that its policy of providing the free telephone minutes each month to detained people helps to meet its obligation to provide constitutionally required access to counsel in detention. We have heard directly from indigent individuals in detention that they can no longer call their attorneys for free, limiting their access to legal services. Depriving detained people of this service with little advance notice and without meaningful engagement with organizations directly representing those in detention underscores a disregard for the basic humanity of those navigating their immigration cases while held in detention and further isolates and punishes them.

Across the detention system, detained people have continued to report intimidation and retaliation for speaking up about worsening conditions over the last four years, including most recently as a result of speaking up about the loss of free telephone minutes. There have been reports that ICE has retaliated against detained people protesting this decision, including by using solitary confinement as a form of punishment for engaging in hunger strikes.

Additional Barriers Further Violate Access to Counsel and Impede Support

In addition to taking away the free telephone minutes, ICE has been imposing other barriers to accessing community and legal support. For example, at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, facility officials have subjected detained people to full body strip searches after social contact visits on the weekends (which is the only time family and friends are permitted visitation). Many who cannot afford to call family and friends now have no other choice than in person visits that require full body strip searches which are humiliating and dehumanizing. At other facilities, such as the Plymouth County Jail in Massachusetts, advocates report being unable to reach their clients by phone and instead having to rely on costly video calls, in-person visits, or legal mail, which often takes weeks. These increasing barriers are especially alarming as they follow similar policies which further limit the ability of people in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody from accessing outside legal and community support ahead of crucial fear screenings. Combined, these policy changes represent an alarming escalation in efforts by this administration to undermine the existence of any meaningful access to counsel or support for people in DHS custody.

Hundreds of Advocacy Groups Across the Country are Calling for Accountability

Two months ago, more than 200 civil society organizations nationwide submitted a letter to President Biden sounding alarm bells on the significant increase in the number of people detained over the past four years. Only a few weeks ago, ten U.S. senators expressed their concern in a letter to Secretary Mayorkas objecting to the renewal of contracts for four detention facilities in light of the track record of abuses in those facilities. Key congressional leaders like Congresswoman Jayapal and Senators Booker, Warren, and Heinrich, have also objected to the expansion of the detention system or dangerous conditions in specific facilities in the states they represent. Nevertheless, over the past two weeks, DHS and ICE have moved forward with these decisions without meaningful engagement with stakeholders or elected officials.

Our organizations regularly represent, support, and advocate for people in immigration detention. We see everyday that expanding detention and cutting necessary services imposes suffering on immigrants without advancing any rational policy goal. Detention does not provide an efficient or ethical means of border processing. Studies show that even the most punitive forms of detention do not deter people from coming to the United States to seek safety or a better life.

We continue to call on the Biden administration to reverse course and move towards policies that allow people to go through their immigration cases in community and with the support of loved ones and access to legal support. In the meantime, we request that ICE immediately halt all expansion efforts, restore free phone access, and protect the basic rights of the people it detains. Additionally we respectfully request immediate opportunity to engage directly with DHS and ICE officials to get answers regarding the timing, justifications, and implementation of these new policies, and for us to share how the implementation of these policies affects those we represent. We hope to hear back soon with a proposed date and time for a timely engagement.

Sincerely,

Detention Watch Network National

Immigrant Justice Center

Freedom for Immigrants

Human Rights First

Immigrant Legal Resource Center

National Immigration Project

ACLU

Vera Institute of Justice

Acacia Center for Justice

Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation

African Human Rights Coalition

Alliance San Diego

American Friends Service Committee

American Friends Service Committee, Colorado

American Friends Service Committee, NJ Immigrant Rights Program

American Gateways Americans for Immigrant Justice

Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (formerly known as CAIR Coalition)

Amnesty International USA

Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC

Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta

Asian Prisoner Support Committee

Baker Interfaith Friends

Bend the Arc Jewish Action: South Jersey

Bend the Arc: Jewish Action

Bilbao Law

Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Border Kindness

Borderlands Resource Initiative

Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network

Bridges Faith Initiative

Buen Vecino California Coalition for Women Prisoners

California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice

California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ)

California Immigrant Policy Center

California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance

Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons

Caravan 4 Justice

Carolina Migrant Network

CASA

Center for Constitutional Rights

Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants

Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law

Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA Law

Center for Law and Social Policy Center for Victims of Torture

Central American Resource Center - CARECEN- of California Church World Service

CIMA (Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Accion 5 Coalición de Derechos Humanos)

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice

Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP)

Community Change Action Community EsTr(El/La)

Community Justice Exchange / National Bail Fund Network

Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim (CMPI)

Connecticut Shoreline Indivisible

Disability Rights California

Doctors for Camp Closure

Dolores Huerta Foundation

Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington DC

El Refugio

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Envision

Freedom Fund Estrella del Paso (Formerly Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services Inc)

Faith in Action

Families For Freedom First

Friends of New Jersey & New York

Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Project Florida Immigrant Coalition

Florida Student Power Network

Food Justice DMV

Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

Free Migration Project

Government Accountability Project

Grassroots Leadership

Greater Lansing Peace Education Center

Ground Game LA

Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Holy Cross Ministries of Utah

Home is Here NOLA

Hope Border Institute

Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative

Houston Leads

Human Impact Partners

Human Rights Coalition of Alachua County

ICE out of Tarrant

Illinois Alliance For Reentry And Justice

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Immigrant Defenders Law Center

Immigrant Justice Network

Immigration Hub Immigration Law & Justice Network

Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA)

Indivisible San Diego Persist

Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice

Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Collective

Innovation Law Lab

Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity

Interfaith Welcome Coalition of San Antonio TX

ISLA: Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy

Juntos

Just Neighbors

Justice in Motion

Kern Welcoming and Extending Solidarity to Immigrants

Kino Border Initiative

La Raza Community Resource Center

La Resistencia

La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE)

Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center

LatinoJustice PRLDEF

Law Office of Fabiola A Navarro Lawyers for Good Government Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the SF Bay Area

Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention

Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants

Make the Road Nevada

Make the Road NY

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

Midwest Immigration Bond Fund

Minnesota Freedom Fund

Mobile Pathways

MomsRising/MamásConPoder

MORE2 Movement for Justice in El Barrio

Muslim Advocates

National Employment Law Project

National Immigration Law Center

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

National LGBTQ Task Force

Action Fund

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)

National Partnership for New Americans

Near Futures Projects

NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

Never Again Action

New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice

New Mexico Immigrant Law Center

New Sanctuary Coalition

New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia

New York Immigration Coalition

New York Lawyers for the Public Interest

Nikkei Progressives

NorCal Resist

North County LGBTQ Resource Center

Oasis Legal Services

OCAD

Ohio Immigrant Alliance

Orale: Organizing Rooted in Abolition Liberation, and Empowerment

Orange County Equality Coalition

Orange County Justice Fund

Orange County Rapid Response Network

PA Stands Up

Pangea Legal Services

Pax Christi New Jersey

Pennsylvania Immigrant & Citizenship Coalition

Physicians for Human Rights

Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Carlsbad CA

PODER of Idaho

Presente.org

Prisoners Legal Services of MA Project

ANAR Project

South Public Counsel

Puente

Quixote Center

Racial Justice Georgia (Episcopal)

RAICES

Refugee Support Services, RSN

Refugees International Resilient Advocates Collective

Resistencia en Accion NJ

Revolución Educativa

Riverside All of us or None

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network

Rural Organizing Project

SA Stands

San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium (SDIRC)

San Francisco Public Defender's Office

San Joaquin College of Law Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN)

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas - Justice Team

Society of the flora, fauna & friend

South Bay People Power

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)

Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC)

Southwest Asylum & Migration institute (SAMI)

SURJ NYC

T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

Tahirih Justice Center

Tarjimly

The Advocates for Human Rights

The Bronx Defenders

The Mami Chelo Foundation

Trans Queer Pueblo - Semilla de Liberación

Tsuru for Solidarity

UndocuBlack Network

Union for Reform Judaism

Unitarian Universalist Massachusetts Action

Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice

Unite Oregon

United Church of Christ

United We Dream

Universidad Popular

UnLocal

USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic

Voces Unidas RGV

Voice of the Experienced-(VOTE)

Voices for Utah Children

Washington Defender Association

Washington Office on Latin America

Washington Square Legal Services, Inc. Immigrant Rights Clinic

Witness at the Border

Women's Refugee Commission

Woori Juntos

cc

Neera Tanden

Domestic Policy Advisor to President Biden and Director

Domestic Policy Council

Patrick J. Lechleitner

Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Michael Lumpkin

Chief of Staff

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI), and other marginalized communities in Georgia and the Southeast