Like a number of immigration prisons throughout the nation, Imperial can also be experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak, additional endangering the lives of detained immigrants. Per ICE’s information, 64 immigrants there have examined constructive as of Jan. 24. “What’s extra, detained migrants, together with some complainants, say they’ve witnessed within the final two weeks how no less than one MTC worker was ordered to remain at work regardless of trying visibly sick,” the discharge continued.
Freedom for Immigrants, Innovation Regulation Lab, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, Desert Assist for Asylum Seekers, Earthjustice, and Interfaith Motion for Human Integrity say within the grievance that detainee testimonies “show a transparent and utter disregard for the security, well-being, and respect of these detained by ICE and MTC at Imperial.”
We additionally already know that ICE and MTC have contempt for individuals underneath their watch. “DHS inspectors discovered ICE detainees who have been saved In solitary confinement for 300 days,” BuzzFeed Information reported in 2020. Practically a dozen immigrants have been thrown in solitary, which is torture, for a interval of greater than two months. That web site was Imperial.
Teams representing immigrants within the civil rights grievance mentioned MTC—which has a reported annual income of almost $670 million—has additionally abused immigrants at amenities in New Mexico and Texas. “In Jan. 2021, advocates printed a report on MTC’s Otero County Processing Middle in Chaparral, New Mexico, documenting myriad medical points and an absence of entry to authorized assets.” Later that 12 months, asylum-seeker Elba Maria Centeno Briones “died from COVID-19 issues whereas within the custody of MTC’s El Valle Detention Facility, in Raymondville, Texas.”
Immigrants even have a historical past of being slowly poisoned whereas underneath ICE’s watch, following the Environmental Safety Company (EPA) warning one other non-public jail profiteer, GEO Group, in regards to the misuse of a poisonous chemical at a Washington facility final 12 months. One other EPA probe earlier than that discovered GEO Group violated the legislation at a California facility.
“Migrants at Imperial are subjected to uniquely harmful residing situations as a result of a mix of poor air flow and air filtration on the facility, in addition to the poisonous environmental air pollution in Imperial County, which incorporates excessive ranges of lethal air pollution like ozone and particulate matter,” Earthjustice Poisonous Publicity and Well being Program employees scientist Rashmi Joglekar mentioned. “These pollution have been linked to devastating well being impacts, even at short-term, low ranges of publicity, together with respiratory misery, heart problems, and untimely demise.”