Sunshine Sentinel

Investigators hired by the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties found conditions described as barbaric at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in 2017-2019, NPR reported.

"These reports are chilling. They are damning," remarked Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project and an expert on ICE detention. The reports' findings, shared by NPR, were described as highlighting the extent of the abuses within ICE detention facilities that government inspectors themselves witnessed, the news report said.

The examination spanned more than two dozen facilities across 16 states from 2017 to 2019 and was carried out by experts hired by the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the NPR report said. The inspectors discovered "negligent" medical care, unsafe conditions, instances of racist abuse of detainees, misuse of pepper spray, and other issues that, in some cases, contributed to detainee deaths.

NPR's quest for transparency spanned over three years and was opposed by both the Trump and Biden administrations, the news report said. Despite a campaign promise by President Biden to "demand transparency and independent oversight over ICE," it took a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by NPR and a federal judge's intervention to compel the release of these documents.

The inspection reports provide an unprecedented perspective on the ICE detention system, NPR said. Experts with specific backgrounds in fields such as medicine, mental health, the use of force, and environmental health have revealed a range of problems in ICE detention, often highlighting issues that might escape other government inspectors.

Many immigration detention facilities are managed by private, for-profit corporations such as GEO Group and CoreCivic, which contract with the government, the news report said. The conditions described in these reports blur the lines between immigration detention and prison, depicting a grim reality that contradicts ICE's claim that detention is non-punitive in nature.

The reports also shed light on disturbing incidents of mistreatment, including racist harassment of detainees and retaliation against those who lodged complaints. For instance, at the Orange County Jail in New York, inspectors noted instances of derogatory language and intimidation directed at detainees by staff, the NPR news report said.

Harassment, discrimination, and retaliation were also documented at the Houston Contract Detention Facility operated by CoreCivic, and the facility was found to have failed to investigate these complaints, the NPR story said. CoreCivic responded that the reports are outdated and do not reflect current facility operations.

The investigation revealed unjustified use of force by detention staff, including instances of locking mentally ill detainees in restraint chairs without justification and using pepper spray without proper cause, raising concerns about the violation of detainees' constitutional rights.

Medical and mental health care within ICE detention facilities proved to be among the most consistent and perilous issues, the NPR report said. Experts pointed out that detainees are frequently moved between facilities, increasing the likelihood of medical records and care plans getting lost, and the facilities' remote locations often lead to inadequate access to quality healthcare, the report said.