FFI joined partners in New York to supplement previously submitted complaints filed on February 17, 2022, and April 20, 2022, seeking redress for ongoing civil rights violations against people detained at Orange County Correctional Facility (“OCCF”). This supplement is supported by information regarding the recent experiences of several individuals recently detained at OCCF, “Ms. Q”, “Ms. G”, and “Mr. D”. As the accounts of Ms. Q, Ms. G, and Mr. D describe, ICE and OCCF continue to violate the rights of people detained at OCCF. These rights include access to adequate medical care, access to safe and nutritious food, and non-punitive and safe conditions. In response to the inaction of DHS and OCCF, detained people, advocates, and government officials have continued to challenge the abuses endemic to the facility. Read the full complaint here.
Immigrants Punished for Seeking Medical Treatment in California and Nevada Detention Facilities
Five individuals currently or previously detained in federal immigration detention at the Nye County Jail and Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, Nevada, have come forward to report a troubling pattern of retaliatory transfers and medical abuse detailed in a new federal civil rights complaint filed by FFI and a coalition of legal and advocacy organizations. Read the full complaint here.
Complaint Regarding Inhumane Conditions and Unlawful Treatment at Baker County Detention Center, Including Retaliation, Physical Assault, Medical Neglect, and Unsanitary Conditions
‘A Living Hell’: Federal Complaint Lodged by Immigrants in Florida Detention Center Exposes Horrid Abuses
15 people either currently or formerly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Baker County Detention Center (Baker) filed a federal civil rights complaint, calling for releases, an immediate closure of the detention facility and an investigation amid ongoing and rampant human rights abuses including excessive use of force, racism and retaliation. Read the full complaint here.
Ongoing Racist and Retaliatory Abuse at Orange County Correctional Facility Supplement to Complaint Filed February 17, 2022
FFI and partner organizations in New York submitted this complaint seeking redress for ongoing civil rights violations against people detained at Orange County Correctional Facility (OCCF). Since filing a complaint on February 17, 2022, disturbing abuses persist at OCCF. This supplement is supported by the testimony of nine individuals formerly and currently detained at OCCF, including six declarants who submitted statements as part of the February complaint. Orange County Undersheriff Kenneth Jones, who has publicly acknowledged former ties to the Oath Keepers, continues to defend OCCF and claims that the link between Officer Richard Bloise and the email handle “nazikommando” “ha[d] been made some time in the past and was being investigated,” raising questions about how long OCCF has been aware of allegations of extremism within its ranks. Read the full complaint here.
Complaint Exposes Psychologist's Prejudiced and Unethical Conduct at San Diego Immigration Detention Center
In a complaint filed by FFI and coalition of legal and advocacy organizations, 12 immigrants currently or previously detained in federal immigration custody at the Otay Mesa Detention Facility in San Diego have come forward to report severe mental health abuses at the hands of a psychologist whose pattern of negligence and misconduct further traumatized and endangered those who acknowledged risk of harm to themselves or others due to mental illness. Read the full complaint here.
Racist and Retaliatory Abuse, Violence, and Medical Neglect Endured by Individuals Detained at Orange County Correctional Facility
FFI joined partners in New York to submit this complaint seeking redress for racist and retaliatory abuse, use of violence, and medical neglect against individuals detained at the Orange County Correctional Facility (OCCF). This complaint is supported by the statements of ten individuals detained at OCCF who wish to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation. People detained at OCCF continue to report that jail officials individually and collectively engage in a culture of racist and retaliatory abuse, violence, and medical neglect. People in immigration detention have the right to freedom from racial and religious discrimination, freedom from First Amendment retaliation, adequate medical care, and non-punitive and safe conditions. Over the last several years, OCCF’s appalling conditions have been the subject of multiple complaints, lawsuits, and media reports. Read the full complaint here.
Complaint Filed Over Noxious Air, Contaminated Water, Toxic Dust, and Mold Causing Serious Health Complications at Imperial Regional Detention Center
Nine immigrants in ICE detention at the privately-owned Imperial Regional Detention Facility, filed a civil rights complaint with federal agencies in response to unsafe living conditions due to hazardous air, dust, mold, and drinking water contamination. According to the complaint, immigrants detained at Imperial experience difficulty breathing and suffer from headaches and gastrointestinal pains. A coalition of civil rights and environmental organizations, in collaboration with the group of immigrants, submitted the complaint to the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, and Management & Training Corporation (MTC), which owns and operates the detention center. Read the complaint here.
‘Takes the human out of a person’: Black Immigrants in Detention Describe Anti-Blackness, Egregious Abuses in New Civil Rights Complaint
Nine Black immigrants in federal custody filed a civil rights complaint with the Biden administration, speaking out against a disturbing pattern of anti-Black racism and abuse at the Krome North Service Processing Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Miami, Florida. Advocates with The UndocuBlack Network, Haitian Bridge Alliance, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and Freedom for Immigrants submitted the complaint with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL). Read the full complaint here.
Physical & Verbal Abuse, Contaminated Food, Denials of Right to Practice Religion, Denial of Disability Accommodations, Solitary Confinement, and COVID-19 Neglect at Caroline Detention Facility
Women at Florida Immigration Detention Center File Federal Complaint Over Sexual and Medical Abuse, Toxic Chemical Spray, and Racist Treatment
Seven immigrant women held at a remote immigration detention center in Florida filed a complaint with federal officials, shedding light on an appalling pattern of abuses including sexual abuse by guards and a psychiatrist amounting to violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Acts (PREA), exposure to a highly toxic chemical spray, life-threatening medical neglect, violations of COVID-19 safety protocols, and racist and degrading treatment. Read the full complaint here.
‘Egregious and Unlivable’: Immigrants in New Jersey Jail File Civil Rights Complaint Over ICE Assaults and Retaliation
15 immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody lodged a multi-individual complaint with the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), calling for an investigation into ongoing abuses including medical neglect, violent retaliation, COVID-19 negligence, religious discrimination, sexual assault and overall intolerable conditions at the Bergen County Jail (BCJ) in Bergen County, New Jersey. Read the full complaint here.
Excessive Force and Retaliatory Use of Solitary Confinement Against Two Men Who Participated in Previous Civil Rights Complaint
Freedom for Immigrants and Immigrant Action Alliance submitted this complaint regarding the excessive use of force and retaliatory solitary confinement at Glades County Detention Center against two Jamaican men who reported abuse in a prior civil rights complaint filed February 22. Both men were harmed in the act of being taken to solitary confinement; both experienced severe use of force, with one man reporting he had been “badly beaten, maced and locked in confinement,” and the other reporting his head had been dragged on the ground on the way to solitary. Read the full complaint here.
Violations of Civil Rights, COVID-19 Protocols, Reckless Endangerment, and other Abuses at the Glades County Detention Center
Freedom for Immigrants joined its partners in submitting a multi-individual federal civil rights complaint against the Glades County Detention Center today on behalf of hundreds of people whose lives are being recklessly endangered at this county-run facility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The complaint, filed with the Office of the Inspector General and the Office for Civil Rights & Civil Liberties at DHS, demands investigation and immediate oversight to prevent additional deaths and health consequences. The groups also demand that ICE terminate its contract with Glades County and immediately release all people detained at the facility. Read the full complaint here.
Use of Torture and Violence to Coerce Cameroonian Men into Signing Deportation Documents at Winn Correctional Center, Louisiana
Freedom for Immigrants and partners filed a federal civil rights complaint detailing civil and human rights violations committed against Cameroonian individuals in the custody of ICE at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, including testimony from three men who face imminent deportation after experiencing threats, physical violence, and coercion in the forced signing of deportation documents. All three of the complainants are seeking asylum in the U.S. and face life-threatening consequences if deported to Cameroon. Read the full complaint here.
‘After about 5 minutes of struggle, they forced my index finger on the paper’: ICE Forcing More Asylum Seekers to Sign Deportation Paperwork at Jackson County Correctional Center, Louisiana
Freedom for Immigrants and other immigrants rights organizations filed a multi-individual Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) complaint with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil liberties (CRCL) and Office of the Inspector General (OIG), detailing ICE’s continued use of force and torture against Cameroonian asylum seekers to sign their own deportation paperwork. According to the complaint, ICE used coercive tactics against six Cameroonian asylum seekers detained at the privately-operated Jackson County Correctional Center in Jackson Parish, Louisiana. Tactics include threats of violence, physical abuse and forced taking of fingerprints in restraint to forcibly certify deportation and travel paperwork. Read the full complaint here.
Use of torture to coerce Cameroonian immigrants into signing immigration documents at Adams County Correctional Facility, Mississippi
Freedom for Immigrants and partners filed a multi-individual complaint with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and Office of Inspector General (OIG), condemning the agency for deploying excessive force to coerce Cameroonian asylum seekers into signing their own deportation papers. According to the complaint, ICE coerced eight Cameroonian men detained at the privately operated Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi on September 27 and 28. The complaint describes the coercive tactics, including threats of violence and direct physical abuse to obtain submission, forced taking of fingerprints while individuals are in restraint, and the use of pepper spray against those who decline to sign their deportation papers. Read the full complaint here.
ICE refusal to release immigrants detained at Adelanto on bond
After being blocked repeatedly by ICE, Freedom for Immigrants filed a complaint to condemn the agency’s recent and repeated refusals to release detained individuals who have been granted immigration bonds from the Adelanto Detention Facility. The complaint demanded that all ICE Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO) offices across the United States begin to immediately accept and process bonds that have been granted for people in detention at Adelanto Detention Facility, and that those individuals be promptly released, in accordance with the law. One week after the complaint was filed, releases at Adelanto resumed. Read the full complaint here.
Medical negligence at the Caroline Detention Center
Freedom for Immigrants filed a CRCL complaint and medical advocacy letter on behalf of a man detained at Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia, who has systematically been denied both his mental health medication as well as access to a dentist for ongoing tooth issues. Read the full complaint here.
Racist, Discriminatory, and Violent Practices at Pine Prairie, Louisiana
Following the peaceful protest of Black asylum seekers held at the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, Freedom for Immigrants and its partners filed a civil rights complaint with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), calling on the agency to immediately halt and investigate the violent and discriminatory practices against Black asylum seekers and for their immediate release from solitary confinement. On August 10, 2020, Cameroonian asylum seekers at Pine Prairie staged a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention, racist treatment from prison staff, and inhumane conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, prison officials used unnecessary lethal force to place them in choke holds, pointed a gun at them and told the men they were going to be placed in solitary confinement. Read the full complaint here.