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InAlienable
Daily Dispatch
February 20, 2020
It is that time again - below we offer a couple updates on campaigns we have been tracking and/or are involved in directly.
NILC, others win suit against CBP
Customs and Border Protection has been ordered by a court to treat people in their custody decently in the Tucson sector. The fact that I am writing this sentence tells you everything you need to know about the quality of immigration detention in the United States.
A lawsuit was brought against CBP in 2015 (underline that date!) due to poor conditions in border detention facilities. CBP is supposed to hold people for 72 hours or less - but even in 2015 were holding people longer, forcing them to sleep on the floor under mylar blankets, the room temperature purposefully kept very cold to heighten discomfort. The rooms are referred to as helieras, or ice boxes by the people who have been detained in them.
Now CBP has to provide blankets and a bed.
U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ordered CBP to provide a bed, blanket, shower, potable food and water, and medical assessment for every migrant held more than 48 hours. The ruling would also make permanent a preliminary injunction Bury issued in 2016 that requires CBP to provide clean mats and thin blankets to migrants held for longer than 12 hours and to allow access to body wipes.
So, we live in a country where a court must order beds and blankets for people held more than 48 hours, and body wipes if held over 12 hours. Be clear, we’ve lived in that country since long before Trump became president. But now we know. From The Hill:
Alvaro Huerta, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center [one of the organizations that brought the suit], said the judge’s ruling Wednesday creates a precedent that extends constitutional minimums to migrants in CBP custody.
“After several years we have seen that CBP has shown that they won’t change the way they treat people in confinement until a court orders it,” Huerta said in a press call. “This is an important case not only for the thousands of people who go through CBP processing everyday, we’re going to see their treatment from what it is now, but I think it’s incredibly important because it sets constitutional minimums for the way people in detention should be treated… We hope and expect this will have ramifications beyond the Tucson Sector.”
You can read the full press release from the National Immigration Law Center about the case here.
Hunger Strike Update. From Freedom for Immigrants
Below is the latest on the hunger strike we've been tracking and encouraging people to speak out about. From Rebekah Entralgo:
We wanted to provide an update on the five South Asian asylum seekers on a prolonged hunger strike at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana. As I wrote in a previous email, one man has been released from ICE custody and another was deported to India on day 83 of his hunger strike. He was deported without being medically stabilized.
We recently learned that two of the remaining men in ICE custody were transferred out of LaSalle. One, whose deportation we fear is as eminent as next Monday, has been transferred to a facility in Texas. Another, who was subjected to force-feeding at LaSalle, was going to be transferred, however the pilot deemed him too weak to fly. He has not yet officially been reentered into the system at LaSalle, so it is unclear what ICE plans to do with him. If ICE chooses to place him on a flight in his weakened state, there is a very real risk that he could die.
In response to the recent developments we filed two complaints with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL):
1) a multi-individual complaint addressing the inappropriate and retaliatory use of solitary confinement against all of the five men on hunger strike. After over 100 days, the three men remaining in ICE custody continue to be segregated from the general population and are now each placed in solitary confinement with no access to other individuals or the outdoors
2) an individual complaint that addresses the medical neglect, obstruction of independent medical evaluation, and withholding of information to legal counsel of the man who was deported on day 83 of his hunger strike.
Read more about the complaints here.
This is why we are once again asking for your help. We need to keep up the pressure on ICE.
Here are some people to contact: NOLA field office director: John.hartnett@ice.dhs.org (318) 992-1594. Bryan Cox head of NOLA ICE public affairs 504 329 2588 Bryan.d.cox@ice.dhs.gov. Caridad Cephas Deputy ICE field director (504) 599-7889
"Hi, I'm a [student, mom, civilian, doctor, lawyer, reporter, etc] in [state] calling in reference to the treatment of hunger strikers in the facility you work at and/or supervise. If hunger strikers die in the Lasalle Facility due to medical incompetence or as a result of deportation during the term of your employment, it is on your hands. ICE should never deport critically malnourished, weakened hunger strikers who face persecution in their country of origin."
Confronting Trump in Mexico
The Franciscan Network on Migration provides shelter for migrants crossing through Mexico, we are now their fiscal sponsor. You can donate here.
We continue to ask people to speak out against the remain in Mexico, and to take action to get this policy defunded. Veronica Escobar (TX-D) has introduced legislation to end the remain in Mexico and work to extend protections to asylum seekers more generally. The Asylum Seeker Protection Act (H.R. 2662) has 63 co-sponsors. Check to see if your member of Congress is one of them here. If not, call and ask them to co-sponsor the bill!