Heidi Altman Profile picture
Mar 24, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read Read on X
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/
Public health experts and advocates are united in calling on ICE to release immigrants from detention. ICE has full legal authority to do so. Not doing so is reckless and cruel, for those jailed and for public health in general, and ICE knows it. 4/ cnn.com/2020/03/20/hea…
So it's all the more shocking that Congress is considering giving ICE and CBP $ in the stimulus package for so-called "quarantine facilities." Immigrants in detention today literally cannot get soap. Congress: Do not empower ICE and CBP to risk even more lives 5/ #SafeandTogether

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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 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
Sep 24, 2019
Now: Thank you ⁦@RepJasonCrow⁩ for joining ⁦@NIJC⁩ ⁦@ACLU⁩ ⁦@DetentionWatch⁩ ⁦@MigrantFreedom⁩ to talk about how critical it is for members of Congress to step in where the administration is failing and inspect ICE jails & prisons in their districts. Image
@RepJasonCrow: “The government works better when there’s transparency... And so we started to show up.”
Visiting an immigration jail is one way members of congress can shine light on the structural and endemic abuses within ICE’s network of 200+ jails and prisons. westword.com/news/jason-cro…
Read 4 tweets

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