The American Civil Liberties Union and two other organizations have sued the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for neglecting the rights of illegal immigrants housed at a federal prison in California during the implementation of the zero tolerance policy.
ACLU, Prison Law Office, and Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center allege in the lawsuit that the government is housing immigrants, including asylum seekers, in prisons and depriving them of food, air, and religious freedoms.
“The federal government is needlessly locking these individuals into a medium-security federal prison, and is depriving them of basic human needs such as health care, food, and sunlight,” Margot Mendelson, staff attorney at the Prison Law Office, said in a press release. “This lawsuit calls on the government to remove ICE detainees from the federal prison at Victorville immediately and to ensure that their constitutional rights are protected.”
In early May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to refer all illegal entrants for prosecution, including parents from families who were caught entering the U.S. between ports of entry. The decision forced children to be separated from parents as the adults went through legal proceedings.
Families couldn’t be held together by the Department of Homeland Security because of a previous court decision that said children couldn’t be held by the agency for more than 20 days. But the adults – all of whom were referred for prosecution for illegally entering the U.S. – were housed elsewhere, including in prisons.
CBP had an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons that permitted 1,600 people who illegally entered the country to be detained in prisons while they proceeded through their legal cases. People were sent to prisons in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Texas.
Children were turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services for care and released to family members in the U.S. A judge later ordered all families be reunited.
[More: Trump admin says it met judge-imposed deadline to reunite migrant families]
“Confining immigrants in these conditions is unconscionable and unconstitutional,” Victoria Lopez, senior staff attorney at the ACLU National Prison Project, said in a statement. “We will do everything in our power to make sure these men have adequate food and medical care, and are able to freely exercise their faiths.”
The suit specifically alleges that those in custody at the Victorville, Calif., facility are living in poor conditions.
“They have not been provided adequate medical or mental health care and suffer verbal abuse and threats of isolation when they ask for medical help. They do not have access to legal materials and the most basic information is only provided to the detainees in English — which most of them don’t speak. They face additional deprivations including inadequate and insufficient food, and minimal access to outdoor spaces for fresh air and sunlight,” according to a joint press release from the organizations.
The complaint also states prison that officials in Victorville will not allow detainees to gather in group worship or prayer outside their cells, or feed male detainees in a way that adheres to their religious practice.
