Heidi Altman Profile picture
Oct 2, 2018 15 tweets 5 min read Read on X
NEW: Today DHS’s Inspector General released an alert on a CA immigration jail, finding conditions pose “threats to the safety, rights, and health of detainees.” > 40,000 immigrants suffer daily in jails like this. I'll break the report down here (THREAD) 1/oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/…
Keep in mind as you read: ICE inspected this facility in October 2017 AND IT PASSED INSPECTION. This despite numerous deaths at the facility, persistent suicide attempts, and credible reports of dangerously unsafe conditions. 2/ latimes.com/local/lanow/la…
ICE jails a lot of people in Adelanto – up to 1,940 men and women on any given day – and keeps them in jail for an average of 70 days. The jail is run by for-profit private prison giant GEO. 3/ immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/ice…
The report first sounds alarms about nooses made from braided bed sheets, which OIG inspectors found in 15 of the 20 cells they visited and found to be “very widespread” in the jail. Asked why they don’t remove the nooses, GEO guards shrugged it off as not a high priority. 4/
“Not a high priority.” The lack of humanity is shocking, but even more so in light of Adelanto’s history: in March 2017, Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba died after hanging himself from a braided bed sheet in his Adelanto cell. 5/ washingtonpost.com/news/post-nati…
ICE’s review of Mr. Gonzalez-Gadba’s death found that guards conducting rounds of the solitary confinement unit didn't visually confirm his well-being immediately before his death. OIG found this problem persists systemically at Adelanto today. 6/ ice.gov/doclib/foia/re…
The OIG found, broadly, untimely and inadequate medical care, increasing health risks for those in the jail. Over 6 months in 2017/18, people jailed at Adelanto filed 80 grievances for not receiving urgent care and delays in treatment for persistent health conditions. 7/
None of this is news to ICE or GEO. 3 men have died since 2012 at Adelanto due to delays in medical care, including Jose Azurdia Hernandez who died of a heart attack after a nurse refused to examine him because “she did not want to get sick.” More @hrw 8/ immigrantjustice.org/research-items…
The OIG found dental care equally deficient. One man reported to the OIG that he waited 8 months for a dental extraction and another reported having the wrong tooth pulled. There are two dentists on staff to care for nearly 2,000 men and women. 9/
Also documented: harmful and inappropriate use of solitary at Adelanto in violation of ICE’s own detention standards. Of 14 people in solitary when OIG visited, all were placed there before having been found guilty of any prohibited act. 10/ immigrantjustice.org/sites/immigran…
The OIG observed a man in solitary who was blind and limited in English proficiency, without any auxiliary aids or translated materials allowing him to understand why he had been placed there. 11/
The OIG visit to Adelanto was unannounced. The depth of the abuses it uncovered reveals–yet again–how much of a sham ICE is running when it inspects its own facilities and routinely passes them despite deaths, sexual abuse, and rampant human suffering. 12/ immigrantjustice.org/index.php/rese…
ICE and GEO are running this facility literally fueled by systemic negligence and intentional rights violations. For years they've received warnings that their jail is endangering lives and safety. They have learned no lessons, taken no greater care. It's monstrous. 13/
What is happening in Adelanto is not unusual. It is the lived experience of tens of thousands of people every day hidden away in ICE’s secretive and abusive immigration jails. #EndDetention 14/ cjr.org/first_person/r…
Our elected officials are complicit with each dollar they appropriate toward these atrocities. Call your elected officials now and demand they cut funds for immigration detention and enforcement. #DefundHate 15/ action.immigrantjustice.org/p/dia/action4/…

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More from @heidiraltman

Sep 25, 2020
THREAD: Today the House @OversightDems published shocking findings of its investigation into ICE jails run by private contractors. @RepRaskin: "An epidemic of medical neglect & mistreatment at detention centers has caused undue suffering & even death.” 1/ oversight.house.gov/news/press-rel…
This report is hard to read. It gives example on example of abuses committed by ICE, CoreCivic & GEO w/ intentional cruelty, and reminds us how many previous reports uncovering the same abuses have gone completely unaddressed by ICE and its contractors. 2/ oversight.house.gov/news/press-rel…
The Committee investigated Mr. Huy Chi Tran's death at the Eloy detention center. Mr. Tran never got the medication he needed for mental illness and was put in solitary. After Mr. Tran died, a guard falsified records to cover up his failure to monitor Mr. Tran before he died. 3/
Read 8 tweets
Mar 24, 2020
New: On the @NIJC website we've compiled what our legal teams are hearing from their clients in ICE jails during the time of COVID-19. Trends: no soap, no hand sanitizer, reckless transfers; people are scared, learning about the pandemic from TV news. 1/ immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/ice…
Across the board our clients are reporting practices by ICE that directly contradict the warnings and guidance of public health experts. @NIJC clients report they are given no cleaning supplies and must pay money for soap through commissary. 2/ thehill.com/opinion/crimin…
NIJC and so many other legal service providers are trying desperately to ask ICE to do the right thing. We've contacted ICE and local immigration jails by mail, email, and phone. No response. 3/
Read 5 tweets
Mar 19, 2020
ICE has run its detention system with cruelty and abuse for so long we shouldn't be surprised, but this is abhorrent. Public health experts are unanimous: ICE should be releasing as many people as possible. They're not. thedailybeast.com/ice-says-it-ha…
Thank you @attackerman for lifting up voices from behind bars. A man in an ICE family jail: "Most of the people here are women & children, many of whom are already sick or not eating well. We are all worried that if the virus reaches this detention center, many people could die."
The administration is championing their xenophobic policies at the expense of reason, compassion, and the greater good. Read public health experts here urging ICE to act *now* and release as many people as possible, for the health of all our communities: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 5 tweets
Jan 21, 2020
Today @NIJC @TransLatina_C & 80+ human rights orgs are demanding that @ICEgov release all transgender immigrants from its jails. Our letter follows one sent last week by @RepMikeQuigley and 40+ reps. This demand is urgent. This THREAD explains why. 1/
immigrantjustice.org/press-releases…
@NIJC @TransLatina_C @ICEgov @RepMikeQuigley First: Release is required by congressional directive. The report accompanying the 2020 spending bill tells ICE it can only detain trans immigrants if it complies w/ its own 2015 directive. ICE is not in compliance (willfully indifferent to the safety of those it detains). 2/
@NIJC @TransLatina_C @ICEgov @RepMikeQuigley Second: Release is urgent because every day that ICE continues to jail transgender immigrants is a day when their lives and safety and wellbeing are compromised. 3/
psmag.com/social-justice…
Read 7 tweets
Oct 25, 2019
New ICE data: >15,000 of the ~50,000 people in ICE jails are people the gov't already found to have a credible claim or persecution or torture. That's 15,000 people ICE should be releasing to be w/ loved ones during their cases, per ICE's own guidance. 1/ ice.gov/detention-mana…
My @NIJC colleagues are blogging about the human cost of ICE's abandonment of discretion over who it jails and for how long. Read here about Margaret, only 18 and stuck in jail for months despite a family longing for her and a winning asylum claim. 2/ immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/get…
@NIJC And read here about Sebastien, who fled paramilitary groups in Nicaragua to find safety in the United States, but was greeted by a jail cell he could not escape simply because his family couldn’t afford the exorbitant bail set by the judge. 3/ immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/get…
Read 4 tweets
Oct 3, 2019
Thread: It’s day 3 of the U.S. gov’t running under a Continuing Resolution (CR). ICE is expanding its system of immigration jails. People are dying from medical neglect and 1000s are held in remote jails w/out lawyers. It's all connected and Congress has to act. #DefundHate 1/
A CR is supposed to continue ICE at *flat* funding carried over from its 2019 spending bill. In 2019, Congress funded ICE to jail approximately 45,274 people daily. ICE reports they have 51,302 people in jail as of the end of FY2019. 2/
If history is any guide ICE will continue to expand under a CR through a mechanism called an “exception apportionment” that allows ICE to basically borrow ahead and never pay it back. This is what they did under last year’s CR and during the shutdown. buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda… 3/
Read 14 tweets

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