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.
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.
‘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.
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.