An aerial view of Krome North Service Processing Center, one of three Florida immigration detention facilities whose conditions were documented in a Human Rights Watch report published Monday.Alon Skuy/Getty Images
Thousands of people held in immigration detention in Florida are being kept in conditions that violate international human-rights standards as well as those set by the United States government, Human Rights Watch says.
The international non-governmental organization published a report on Monday documenting the conditions in immigration detention between January and June at three facilities in the state: the Krome North Service Processing Center, the Broward Transitional Center and the Federal Detention Center in Miami, where a Canadian man died in custody last month.
The report is based on interviews with 11 people who are currently or were recently detained, family members of seven detainees and immigration lawyers, as well as data analysis. It was co-published with Americans for Immigrant Justice and Sanctuary of the South.
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Human Rights Watch found that detainees in all three facilities said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention officers as well as private contractor guards treated them “in a degrading and dehumanizing manner.”
“Some were detained, shackled for prolonged periods on buses without food, water, or functioning toilets; there was extreme overcrowding in freezing holding cells where detainees were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors under constant fluorescent lighting; and many were denied access to basic hygiene and medical care.”
The report says that the administration of President Donald Trump is using “similar abusive practices” to those that Human Rights Watch and others documented during Mr. Trump’s first term, but that the impact has worsened because of “severe overcrowding.”
It says that staff at the three facilities “subjected detained individuals to dangerously substandard medical care, overcrowding, abusive treatment, and restrictions on access to legal and psychosocial support. Officers denied detainees critical medication and detained some incommunicado in solitary confinement as an apparent punishment for seeking mental health care.”
Trailers sit parked in lines as work progresses on a new migrant detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades.Rebecca Blackwell/The Associated Press
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has led to a significant increase in the number of people incarcerated. Global Affairs Canada has said it’s aware of about 55 cases of Canadians in immigration-related detention.
Last month, Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old Canadian man, died at the Federal Detention Center in Miami while awaiting deportation to Canada. The cause of his death is under investigation, but Mr. Noviello had epilepsy and his family has questioned whether he had received his medication.
Belkis Wille, an associate director in the Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division of Human Rights Watch and author of the report, has spent her career in countries around the world, investigating prisons and their conditions.
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“I have been to some truly horrifying prisons in places like Libya or Iraq and I think what was striking to me in contrast with these facilities was that you’re looking at facilities that are very well-resourced to a certain extent, very professionally run, in part of a very organized system,” she said in an interview.
“So, it’s not about a lack of resources or lack of organization or capacity. And yet it really seemed as if there was a choice being made, in a very organized manner, to treat people in this deeply dehumanizing way and to do things like preventing people from getting the medication that they absolutely need for no other apparent reason than to punish them.”
Human Rights Watch said it sent letters with its findings and requested comments from the heads of the three detention facilities, the acting director of ICE, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the president of Akima Global Services LLC and the chief executive officer of the GEO Group. Under contracts with ICE, Akima provides services to Krome, while the GEO Group provides services to Broward.
The report says that Akima responded that it cannot comment and questions needed to be directed to ICE. It said it operates its contracts “to the highest standards and as set forth by the federal government.” Human Rights Watch said it did not receive any other responses.
ICE entered into agreements with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house immigration detainees, including at the detention centre in Miami, which is a federal prison.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail that “any claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions is categorically false. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
She added: “As we arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens and public safety threats from the U.S., ICE has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space while avoiding overcrowding.”
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Christopher Ferreira, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, told The Globe in an e-mail that the company denies the allegations. He said its support services are monitored by ICE and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security “to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards that set strict requirements on the treatment and services ICE detainees receive.”
He said its contracts set strict limits on a facility’s capacity and they are “never overcrowded.” Mr. Ferreira said GEO provides support services such as access to medical care, in-person and virtual visits with legal representatives and families, dietitian-approved meals, specialty diets and opportunities to practise religious beliefs, among others.
The Human Rights Watch report includes an extensive list of recommendations. It suggests replacing immigration detention with community-based programs and directing ICE to use immigration detention only as a final option and on a short-term basis. If detention cannot be avoided, it says, access to reasonable accommodations and necessary medical treatment should be ensured.
It calls for an end to the use of the Federal Detention Center in Miami, other federal or state prisons, or local jails for civil immigration detention. It also says authorities should avoid detaining people with serious medical and mental-health conditions. It recommends ensuring that ICE detention operations conform with international human-rights and immigration-detention standards.
The report also appeals to a number of United Nations bodies to investigate the allegations of ill-treatment in U.S. immigration detention and to hold the U.S. government accountable for any failures to meet UN standards.