Tag Archives: united states

Disability Rights California: “They Treat Us Like Dogs in Cages”

Posted on by
Reply

Inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center

“¡Nos tratan como perros!
¡Nos tratan como perros en jaulas!”

People being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center (“Adelanto”) shouted in Spanish about being treated like dogs in cages as Disability Rights California (“DRC”) conducted a monitoring visit on June 25, 2025. DRC monitored Adelanto after receiving alarming reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) was holding people with disabilities in unsafe and unsanitary conditions at Adelanto. ICE confines non-citizens at Adelanto, which is an immigration detention center in San Bernardino County, California. The facility is owned and operated by the GEO Group, Inc., a private company that ICE contracts with to provide custody services.

Disability Rights California is the designated protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities in the state. DRC is charged under federal and state laws with protecting and advocating for the rights of people with disabilities, including through the monitoring of facilities that provide care and treatment to such individuals.1

During the monitoring visit, DRC investigated the reports it received and sought to determine whether ICE and GEO Group are subjecting people with disabilities to abuse and neglect.2 DRC toured various areas of the Adelanto facility, including those used for intake, housing, segregation, medical and mental health care, recreation, and visitation. DRC also spoke with GEO Group representatives, ICE officials, and Adelanto staff, and interviewed 18 individuals detained at Adelanto.

Based on the conditions DRC observed, its interviews with detention center leadership and individuals held at Adelanto, and reviews of related information, DRC finds that ICE and GEO Group are subjecting people with disabilities to abuse and neglect. As detailed below, the conditions that DRC observed and the reports it received are alarming. DRC urges DHS, ICE, and the GEO Group to immediately address these issues and prevent further abuse and neglect of people with disabilities by ensuring:

  • Access to appropriate medical and mental health care;
  • Access to processes that properly address disability-related needs;
  • Access to basic needs, including adequate food, water, and clothing; and
  • Access to family and natural supports to prevent decompensation.

Disability Rights California protects and advocates for the rights of all people with disabilities in the State of California, regardless of their ethnicity, cultural background, language, or immigration status.

Many people migrating to the United States are forced to leave their countries due to political instability, dangerous conditions, or persecution. Many are seeking asylum. They exhibit high instances of trauma and present numerous mental health needs. Immigration detention facilities are generally ill-equipped, and are not the least restrictive setting to meet the medical, mental health, and other needs of adults and children with disabilities.

Disability Rights California has long fought for the de-institutionalization of people with disabilities and for their right to live and receive services in the community. Immigrants with disabilities deserve this same treatment.

Background

The reports DRC recently received about the conditions at Adelanto are similar to conditions DRC observed during its prior investigation of Adelanto in 2019.3 In 2019, DRC published a report that detailed serious issues with the conditions in which people with disabilities were held and the poor treatment to which they were subjected—ultimately finding that conditions at Adelanto resulted in the abuse and neglect of people with disabilities. As part of the June 25, 2025 visit, DRC also sought to determine whether conditions have changed since 2019. 

During DRC’s recent monitoring visit, ICE and GEO Group held nearly 1,400 people at Adelanto—a dramatic increase from the approximately 300 individuals it held there just weeks before.4 Due to the surging numbers of people at Adelanto, conditions appear to have quickly deteriorated. 

Overall, DRC found serious issues including: (1) inadequate access to medical treatment, such as life-saving medication and wound care, and exposure to widespread respiratory illnesses; (2) inadequate access to food and water, including extreme delays in meal distribution, provision of food that results in significant health issues, and a shortage of drinking water; (3) inadequate access to clean clothes, with many remaining in soiled clothing for long periods of time; and (4) minimal opportunities to contact family. Further intensifying these issues, many of the people DRC interviewed had never experienced incarceration and felt overwhelmed and terrified by their confinement in a locked, jail-like facility.5 

Findings

1. Inadequate Access to Medical and Mental Health Care and Disability Accommodations

During the monitoring visit, DRC observed and noted serious issues concerning inadequate access to medical and mental health care and failure to properly address disability-related accommodations.6 These issues appear to be ongoing, in part due to Adelanto staff difficulties in identifying and addressing the health care needs of detained individuals, particularly those with disabilities.7 These issues are compounded by the fact that many individuals detained at Adelanto have never been confined and do not know how to navigate the jail-like systems at Adelanto.

DRC met with many individuals during the monitoring visit who were not receiving proper medication to manage their medical conditions.8 One person reported that he needed to take diabetes medication twice per day but had only received it twice over the 10 days he had been detained—placing him at life-threatening risk of diabetic shock. Other individuals reported insufficient access to medication to manage severe asthma and urinary conditions or not having medications transferred from previous facilities to ensure continued treatment.9

One person reported that he needed to take diabetes medication twice per day but had only received it twice over the 10 days he had been detained—placing him at life-threatening risk of diabetic shock.

DRC also spoke with several individuals who reported inadequate medical treatment.10 DRC interviewed one person who had a large, swollen, untreated lump near her wrist, reportedly sustained when she was taken into ICE custody 17 days prior. DRC interviewed another individual using a prosthetic eye who was unable to clean the prosthesis to prevent infection. Although both individuals requested medical attention, neither received a response as of DRC’s visit.11 In addition, several individuals informed DRC that they did not understand how to make requests for medical care or declined to do so because Adelanto staff failed to respond. 

Individuals also reported contagious respiratory viruses quickly spreading due to the increased crowding at Adelanto. People consistently expressed concern that they received limited treatment, if any, to ease their symptoms. DRC also observed staff not wearing masks to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses. These reports and observations are especially concerning given Adelanto’s prior record of inadequate COVID-19 policies and practices, which led to a 2020 court order limiting the number of individuals who could be held at Adelanto.12 

DRC also interviewed several individuals who reported experiencing mental health symptoms but not receiving mental health care.13 One individual, for example, described struggling with anxiety and panic attacks due to past traumatic events, including sexual assault and torture, that took place in his country of origin. He feared that he would be imprisoned and tortured again if he returned. Although he sought help from Adelanto staff for his mental health symptoms, he reported that he had not been evaluated yet despite being held in detention for over three weeks. Other people DRC interviewed also reported difficulty obtaining access to mental health services. Indeed, staff reported that there were only three psychologists to serve the population of nearly 1,400 as of June 25, 2025.

Several individuals with disabilities reported that they were not being afforded reasonable accommodations to manage their health.14 For example, two individuals reported acute spinal conditions that substantially impacted their ability to lie down to rest. The first individual said that the facility-issued mattress was damaged and was causing significant pain to his spine. He submitted multiple requests for a new or additional mattress but reportedly never received a response. Another person approached DRC and showed his broken hearing aid that needed repair.  

The troubling issues that DRC encountered are likely related to the recent sharp increase in the number of people held at Adelanto. Adelanto staff stated that the facility was not adequately staffed to respond to the sudden surge, so staff from other facilities were assisting with operations.

2. Inadequate Access to Food, Water, and Clothes

Based on DRC’s interviews and observations, DRC finds that ICE and GEO Group are failing to provide for individuals’ basic needs, including sufficient access to healthy food, water, and clean clothing.

Limited access to food was a recurring issue throughout DRC’s monitoring tour.15 While walking through the housing units, DRC observed several individuals pointing towards their mouths and shaking their heads “no” to indicate that they were not receiving food.

People also consistently reported extreme delays in meal distribution. During the visit, DRC asked Adelanto staff when they would serve lunch and staff said that “feeding” would be provided starting at 11 a.m. However, most of the people DRC interviewed between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. reported that they had not received food since around 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. Many also said that they feared they would not eat again until potentially 10 p.m.

The inconsistency of, and significant delays in, meal distribution have left many individuals in Adelanto in prolonged states of hunger and physical pain. One individual reported experiencing significant weight loss in the 20 days since their arrival at Adelanto. For people with chronic medical conditions, the harmful impact of inconsistent meals may be even more serious. One individual reported that he had diabetes and was unable to properly manage his blood sugar because he did not know when to expect meals. DRC met multiple people with diabetes facing similar challenges. 

Most people DRC interviewed also reported that the quality of the food was poor or portions were too small to keep them satisfied. Many individuals shared that they are experiencing gastric issues due to poor food quality, including severe stomach cramping and pain.

DRC received similar reports of limited access to water.16 Adelanto brings large water coolers into the housing units, but the individuals DRC spoke to expressed concern that there is not enough water for everyone and people are dehydrated. They also raised safety concerns about the water from sinks and drinking fountains, which they said appears cloudy and has an unusual taste.

Many people also complained about the lack of access to clean clothes.17 Several individuals pulled on their shirts and shook their heads “no” to indicate that they did not have adequate clean clothing. One individual wearing visibly soiled clothing told DRC that Adelanto had not provided him with clean clothes for 20 days. He reported that after showering, he puts on the same soiled clothing out of necessity. Others reported having to wash their clothes by hand in the sink because Adelanto fails to provide sufficient clean clothes.

One individual wearing visibly soiled clothing told DRC that Adelanto had not provided him with clean clothes for 20 days.

3. Limited Connections with Family and Natural Supports 

During the monitoring visit, DRC received multiple reports of minimal opportunities to remain in contact with family and loved ones while in detention. Individuals reported limited access to phones/devices to make calls to loved ones, and calls were regularly disconnected. Two individuals also reported that they had been separated from and not been permitted to speak with their spouses, even though their spouses are also being held in Adelanto. Limiting access to family can exacerbate feelings of isolation, depression, and anxiety, particularly for people with disabilities.18 In fact, many people reported feelings of overwhelm, hopelessness, and fear. Given the unique stressors present in detention settings, facilitating connection with family and natural supports is critical to prevent people with mental health conditions from experiencing further psychological harm and decompensation.19  

Conclusion

The conditions that DRC observed at Adelanto on June 25, 2025, and the reports it received, are alarming. Based on the monitoring visit and related interviews, DRC finds that conditions at Adelanto continue to result in the abuse and neglect of people with disabilities. DHS, ICE, and GEO Group must safeguard the rights, safety, and dignity of the people detained at Adelanto. DRC urges DHS, ICE, and GEO Group to immediately address the issues detailed in this report and ensure the following:

  • Access to appropriate medical and mental health care;
  • Access to processes that properly address disability-related needs;
  • Access to basic needs, including adequate food, water, and clothing; and
  • Access to family and natural supports to prevent decompensation.

DRC has grave concerns that the recent surge of individuals being held in Adelanto will only place individuals with disabilities at even greater risk of abuse, neglect, and serious harm. The conditions at Adelanto make it clear that the current system of immigration detention is dangerous and inadequate for all people, especially for those with disabilities. 

  • 1.See 42 U.S.C. §§ 15001 et seq. (“Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act”); 29 U.S.C. §§ 794e et seq. (“Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights Act”); 42 U.S.C. §§ 10801 et seq. (“Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act”); Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code §§ 4900 et seq. (“Protection and Advocacy Agency”).
  • 2.“Abuse” and “neglect” are defined in federal and state law and their implementing regulations. See 42 C.F.R. § 51.2; 45 C.F.R. § 1326.19; Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 4900.
  • 3.Disability Rights California, There Is No Safety Here: The Dangers for People with Mental Illness and Other Disabilities in Immigration Detention at GEO Group’s Adelanto ICE processing Center (2019), https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/system/files/file-attachments/DRC_REPORT_ADELANTO-IMMIG_DETENTION_MARCH2019.pdf [hereinafter DRC’s 2019 Adelanto Report].
  • 4.Charles Homans & Philip Montgomery, Trump Got the Fight He Wanted. Did it Turn Out the Way He Expected?, N.Y. Times (June 21, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/magazine/trump-los-angeles-immigration.html
  • 5.People who are detained by ICE are civil, not criminal, detainees. See, e.g., Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 690 (2001); Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 530, 536 (1979).
  • 6.The Performance-Based National Detention Standards define reasonable accommodations as: [A]ny change or adjustment in detention facility operations, any modification to detention facility policy, practice, or procedure, or any provision of an aid or service that permits a detainee with a disability to participate in the facility’s programs, services, activities, or requirements, or to enjoy the benefits and privileges of detention programs equal to those enjoyed by detainees without disabilities. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enf’t, Performance-based National Detention Standards (2011, rev. 2016), https://www.ice.gov/doclib/detention-standards/2011/pbnds2011r2016.pdf [hereinafter PBNDS].
  • 7.See DRC’s 2019 Adelanto Report, supra note 2, at 40-44.
  • 8.See PBNDS, supra note 5, § 4.3(V)(G), (H), (U) (discussing standards for medication management).
  • 9.See id. § 4.3(V)(Z) (discussing standards for continuity of care).
  • 10.See id. §§ 2.13 (discussing standards for communication between staff and detainees), 4.8 (discussing standards for assessing and identifying disabilities and accommodations).
  • 11.After the June 25 visit, DRC submitted individual inquiries to ICE, some of which ICE stated were addressed.
  • 12.ACLU of S. Cal., Roman v. Wolf, https://www.aclusocal.org/en/cases/roman-v-wolf (last visited July 15, 2025).
  • 13.Studies show that immigration detention is associated with negative and harmful impact on mental health. See Altaf Saadi, Caitlin Patler & Paola Langer, Duration in Immigration Detention and Health Harms, 8 JAMA Network Open no. 1 (2025), https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2829506#zoi241575r33.
  • 14.See PBNDS, supra note 5, § 4.8 (discussing standards for assessing and identifying disabilities and accommodations).
  • 15.See id. 6 § 4.1, (discussing food service standards).
  • 16.See id. § 4.1(D)(1), (requiring clean and potable drinking water to be available).
  • 17.See id. § 4.5(V)(A) (requiring the regular issuance and exchange of clothing, bedding, linens, towels and personal hygiene items).
  • 18.Saadi, Patler & Langer, supra note 13.
  • 19.Practices that are likely to cause immediate psychological harm or result in long-term harm if the practices continue may constitute abuse. See, e.g., Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 4900(b).
“They Treat Us Like Dogs in Cages” Inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center | Disability Rights California
DRC monitored Adelanto after receiving alarming reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) was holding people with disabilities in unsafe and unsanitary conditions at Adelanto.

https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/drc-advocacy/investigations/inside-the-adelanto-ice-processing-center

LAist: Disabled immigrants are being abused and neglected inside Adelanto Detention Center, report says

Posted on by
Reply

A disability-rights group says immigrant detainees inside a federal detention center near Victorville are being abused and neglected, in part because the population inside the facility has grown rapidly in recent weeks, according to a new report.

Investigators with the non-profit watchdog Disability Rights California toured the Adelanto Detention Center late last month. They said they interviewed 18 people during the monitoring visit.

They also noted in the report, released last week, that the population inside the facility had risen dramatically from approximately 300 people in the weeks before the visit to nearly 1,400. The increase coincided with immigration agents ramping up raids across the L.A. region.

“Due to the surging numbers of people at Adelanto, conditions appear to have quickly deteriorated,” according to the report.

Spokespeople for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which rents the facility, and The GEO Group, which operates it, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rep. Jay Obernolte, a Republican who represents the Adelanto area, recently toured the facility and praised its operations.

“Those in custody are provided with access to medical care, legal counsel, meals, and the full rights guaranteed under federal law,” he said in a statement.

We reached out to two Democratic members of Congress who toured the facility, but they were unavailable for comment in time or did not respond.

The findings

The report provides a rare look inside the conditions at the Adelanto facility.

Overall, Disability Rights California said it found serious issues including:

  • Inadequate access to medical treatment, such as life-saving medication and wound care, and exposure to widespread respiratory illnesses; 
  • Inadequate access to food and water, including extreme delays in meal distribution, provision of food that results in significant health issues, and a shortage of drinking water; 
  • Inadequate access to clean clothes, with many remaining in soiled clothing for long periods of time; and 
  • Minimal opportunities to contact family. 

“Further intensifying these issues, many of the people DRC interviewed had never experienced incarceration and felt overwhelmed and terrified by their confinement in a locked, jail-like facility,” the report states.

Among the 18 people interviewed during the June 25 visit, many said they were not receiving proper medication to manage their medical conditions, according to Disability Rights California.

One person reported he needed to take diabetes medication twice per day but had only received it twice over the 10 days he had been detained — placing him at life-threatening risk of diabetic shock, according to the report. Other people reported insufficient access to medication to manage severe asthma and urinary conditions, or not having medications transferred from previous facilities to ensure continued treatment.

Access to clean clothes is another problem, investigator Paula Sandoval told LAist. She said she met one man who said he didn’t have access to clean clothes for nearly three weeks.

Another investigator, Robert Reyes Villagomez, described a Venezuelan man who said he had panic attacks stemming from his fear of returning to the country. The investigator said the man came to the U.S. seeking asylum because he was tortured and sexually assaulted by government officials.

“He hadn’t seen or talked to anybody on the medical team despite putting in written medical accommodation requests multiple times,” Villagomez said.

Staff at Adelanto told investigators there were three psychologists to serve the entire population inside the detention center.

According to the report, two people told investigators they had acute spinal conditions that substantially impacted their ability to lie down to rest. The first person said his mattress was damaged and causing significant pain to his spine. He asked for a new mattress, the report states, but never received a response.

‘Grave concerns’

The report focused on people with disabilities, but it noted many of the detainees who were interviewed or otherwise interacted with said they faced the same conditions.

“While walking through the housing units, investigators observed several individuals pointing towards their mouths and shaking their heads ‘no’ to indicate that they were not receiving food,” the report stated.

Most people who were interviewed also reported that the quality of the food was poor or portions were too small to keep them satisfied. Many shared that they are experiencing gastric issues due to poor food quality, including severe stomach cramping and pain.

During the monitoring visit, detainees told investigators they had minimal opportunities to remain in contact with family and loved ones while in detention. They reported limited access to phones to make calls, and those calls were regularly disconnected.

The watchdog group said it has “grave concerns” that a continued surge of detainees held in Adelanto will put those with disabilities at even greater risk of abuse, neglect and harm, according to the report.

“The conditions at Adelanto make it clear that the current system of immigration detention is dangerous and inadequate for all people, especially for those with disabilities.”

The report is available online here.

Disabled immigrants are being abused and neglected inside Adelanto Detention Center, report says
Immigrant detainees have complained of poor conditions inside center amid period of increased ICE sweeps.

https://laist.com/news/disabled-immigrants-are-being-abused-and-neglected-inside-adelanto-detention-center-report-says

Alternet: ‘Not just racist but stupid’: VP slammed for ‘sleight of hand’ while promoting far-right theory

Posted on by
Reply
JD Dunce, “Not Just Racist But Stupid”

Author Katherine Stewart says Vice President JD Vance is “polishing ideas from the far-right gutters with an Ivy League sheen,” particularly when it comes to smearing a pretty face over the racist Great Replacement Theory.

Stewart says President Donald Trump is expelling asylum seekers, abusing foreign visitors and deporting and incarcerating people who have never been accused of any crime. Meanwhile, Vance is in the wings, pushing a “thoughtful” version of the “Great Replacement Theory” that’s sure to appease nativists who embrace the idea that immigration is part of a deliberate plot to destroy the U.S. by replacing “real” or “true” Americans with aliens.

Stewart notes how Vance recently argued that America’s founders understood “that our shared qualities, our heritage, our values, our manners and customs confer a special and indispensable advantage. … Social bonds form among people who have something in common. They share the same neighborhood. They share the same church.”

“Vance is using a sleight of hand here,” said Stewart, agreeing that social bonds do form when people share things in common, but she adds that a nation’s people who “define themselves according to the church their grandparents attended … [is] not the America that Lincoln and Jefferson … established.”

“We the people have agreed to promote the general welfare not by conducting a survey of the views of some subset of ancestors who happened to be present at the Civil War, but by making laws through representative government based on the idea that all people are free and equal before the law.”

Versions of the Vance ideology haunt American history, Steward argues, and always with the same malicious intent: to divide “real” Americans from the ones who “don’t belong.”

“The intent becomes clear the moment you ask the speaker who the ‘real’ Americans are,” Stewart said. “Are they the descendants of the Mayflower? That’s just silly. … Are the real Americans white? That’s not just racist but stupid; most Black Americans today have ancestors that lived in America significantly longer, on average, than white Americans.”

But the argument serves the purpose of putting a lot of money in the hands of a few, said Stewart, whether it’s letting slaveholders get rich while their white neighbors get outcompeted by slave labor or funneling money to “the establishment of a grifty concentration camp on American soil.” (Research shows contractors affiliated with the controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” have “lost” tens of millions of dollars, while others have forced states to pay for detention centers it never built.)

“We can’t know what’s in JD Vance’s heart,” Stewart argued, but “he seems to believe that, to keep himself and his associates in power, the U.S. government needs to ship asylum seekers off to random islands and engage in an ever-expanding menu of sadistic acts. Meanwhile, none of our actual immigration issues are resolved and the rest of us are simply forced to pay the price.”

Read the full New Republic report at this link.

‘Not just racist but stupid’: VP slammed for ‘sleight of hand’ while promoting far-right theory

https://www.alternet.org/jd-vance-baseless-claim

More in The New Republic:

JD Vance’s “Intellectual” Spin on the Racist Great Replacement Theory

As the Trump administration advances its draconian immigration schemes, the vice president is doing his part—by polishing ideas from the far-right gutters with an Ivy League sheen.

USA Today: Immigrants forced to eat ‘like a dog’ in detention centers

Posted on by
Reply

Forced to eat the day’s only meal “like a dog,” with their hands shackled behind their back. Detained for days with nothing but shoes for a pillow and no other bedding ‒ just cold, concrete floors and constant fluorescent lighting. Medical care that denied a man with diabetes insulin for a week and may have contributed to at least one death.  

A Human Rights Watch report says three Miami immigrant detention facilities have subjected people to conditions so inhumane they have become, at times, life-threatening. Many ICE detention facilities are becoming overcrowded and conditions are deteriorating, according to the July 21 report.

The report, which drew from the testimonials of 17 detainees, examined conditions since President Donald Trump took office in January. Investigators say conditions at the Krome North Processing Center, Federal Detention Center and Broward Transitional Center flout international law on holding people in immigrant detention and federal government standards.

The conditions for people held in the detention facilities “are not the way that any legitimate, functioning government should treat people within its custody,” report author and editor Alison Leal Parker, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch’s US Program, said.

While the facilities have had issues predating this administration, Parker said Trump administration officials have been unwilling to uphold standards to properly treat immigrant detainees. The conditions indicate the system is “overwhelmed, overcrowded and chaotic,” she said.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said claims of subprime conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers are “FALSE.”

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”

Southern, Republican-led states have emerged as key partners in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Florida stood up a tent city called “Alligator Alcatraz.” Georgia is expanding its largest ICE detention center. And Louisiana is hosting the most dedicated ICE facilities outside Texas.

Time at all three facilities

Entrepreneur Harpinder Singh Chauhan, 56, spent time at all three facilities during nearly four months as a detainee, beginning in February. 

The British national, who first entered the country on an E-2 investor visa in 2016, opened small businesses in Florida. One of them failed ‒ a franchise of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, which also bankrupted many other franchisees. He and his wife were seeking permanent residency through a valid EB-5 visa petition when their business collapsed.

While Chauhan was never convicted of crimes, he was ordered to pay restitution to Florida for tax issues, court records show. In February, he was turned over to ICE after a routine probation check-in.

At the Krome facility, he spent days in cold, crowded processing cells without beds or showers. He said he was denied medical care, including insulin for his diabetes and an inhaler for his asthma. He used his shoes as a pillow. 

During a tuberculosis outbreak, he said the facility had no soap. Instead, staff made detainees use shampoo to wash their hands. Detainees jokingly said everyone had “Krome’s disease,” a play on Chrohn’s disease, a chronic gastrointestinal illness, Chauhan recalled.

Detainees were beaten for protesting their treatment, and one man was hogtied, the report said. Officials also used solitary confinement as punishment, according to women who spoke to Human Rights Watch. In June, detainees at Krome signaled “SOS” to news cameras from the yard over conditions.

The report said women were placed at Krome, a privately operated men’s facility, where they were crowded in small holding cells without gender-appropriate care or privacy. USA TODAY reported on similar conditions inside Krome, where one man died ‒ an incident Human Rights Watch suspects may have been linked to medical neglect.

Akima, a private Alaska Native Corporation that operates Krome, didn’t respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment. But in response to a Human Rights Watch letter summarizing findings and questions, the company said it couldn’t comment publicly on the specifics of its “engagement” with the government, according to the report.

‘Like a dog’

Midway through his detention, on April 15, Chauhan was placed inside a crowded Federal Detention Center holding cell awaiting transfer without a meal for the day. Styrofoam food containers sat full for hours on other side of the federal prison’s bars.

In the evening, he and others finally received food. But with their hands shackled at their waist, they were forced to eat by putting their faces to bite into potatoes rolling around, rice and dry chicken, he said.

“You’ve got to kind of prop it up with your knees and then eat out of it like a dog,” Chauhan said. Another 21-year-old detainee interviewed by Human Rights Watch also described being forced to eat like an animal.

The 25 to 30 men forced to eat this way were transferred from the facility several hours later, Chauhan said.

Less than a week later, at Broward, Chauhan collapsed in the heat awaiting dinner and was taken to a hospital, with no information given to his family. He had not had his insulin for nearly a week. A 44-year-old Haitian woman, Marie Ange Blaise, died at the facility in April, following a medical emergency that was not treated urgently, according to Human Rights Watch and advocates.

“We strongly believe her death could have been prevented,” Guerline Jozef, director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance told USA TODAY at the time. “We will continue to demand accountability and protection for people in ICE custody.”

GEO Group, which operates Broward, denied the report’s allegations, including questions about Chauhan’s account.

The facility has around-the-clock access to medical care, as well as access to visitations, libraries, translation services and amenities, Christopher Ferreira, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement. Support services are monitored by ICE, including on-site personnel, and other organizations within DHS.

A ‘dark time’ in US

Chauhan was ordered deported and boarded a flight back to the United Kingdom on June 5. His family, including two adult children, stayed in Florida to close what remains of their businesses.

Now living outside London, Chauhan said he plans to keep paying his Florida debt. Even though his family is ready to leave, he hopes to one day return to America.

“Every nation goes through a dark time,” he said. “I feel this is just a test.”

Immigrants forced to eat ‘like a dog’ in ‘overcrowded and chaotic’ detention centers
A Human Rights Watch report said three Miami detention facilities subject people to inhumane, at times life-threatening, conditions.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/24/trump-immigration-detention-conditions-dog/85338970007

Fox News: ‘Lawless and insane’: Trump admin readies for fight after judges block Abrego Garcia removal for now

Posted on by
Reply

In Nashville, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw on Wednesday ordered Abrego Garcia’s release from criminal custody pending trial, writing in a 37-page ruling that the federal government “fails to provide any evidence that there is something in Abrego’s history, or his exhibited characteristics, that warrants detention.” 

He also poured cold water on the dozens of allegations made by Trump officials, including by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in Nashville last week, that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member.

“Based on the record before it, for the court to find that Abrego is member of or in affiliation with MS13, it would have to make so many inferences from the government’s proffered evidence in its favor that such conclusion would border on fanciful,” he said. 

King Donald’s pathetic band of idiots, suck-ups, and sycophants really needs to learn to quit when they’re behind, way behind in this case.

‘Lawless and insane’: Trump admin readies for fight after judges block Abrego Garcia removal for now
The Trump administration faces setbacks as judges in Tennessee and Maryland block the deportation of Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with officials suggesting they may violate court orders.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawless-insane-trump-admin-readies-fight-after-judges-block-abrego-garcia-removal-now

Alternet: Trump official brutally mocked after saying he was ‘not going to tolerate’ sick Americans

Posted on by
Reply

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, declared that the administration will no longer “tolerate” what he called a culture that makes it “easy to be sick in America.” Framing childhood illness as a failure of parenting and physical activity rather than medical need, Oz linked obesity to national security and warned that industries would be forced to cooperate—or face government retaliation.

Oz—often called a conspiracy theorist who has been widely criticized for promoting “quack” products—appeared to endorse an authoritarian vision of public health, suggesting that under Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Americans would no longer be allowed to remain “sick” without consequences, and threatened industry with demands to either cooperate or face retribution.

He also railed against what he called the “over-medicalization” of American society—particularly among children—but failed to distinguish between conditions driven by behavior and those rooted in biology or beyond individual control.

“You’re diagnosing problems that probably should be dealt with with the parents,” he told Fox News Business, referring to children’s health, “or by going out and playing, or just dealing with issues and teaching kids how to mental resilience [sic].”

He warned of risk factors that “cause an obesity epidemic that now prevents three quarters of young men from entering the military,” a questionable claim, and said that this “crisis” is “rolling up towards the older ages.”

“There’s a reason we’re twice as obese as [our] European counterpart countries, we’re ten times more obese than Japan: we’ve made it easy to be sick in America. And this president and this Secretary of Health, Bobby Kennedy, they’re not going to tolerate it anymore,” Oz declared.

Warning that he and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, “are the tip of the spear,” he threatened “to make sure that we get industry to work with us, or we’ll be coming after them.”

Dr. Oz has a history of linking healthcare policy to politics.

In 2022, during his failed senatorial campaign, Oz said he wanted abortion to be between a woman, her doctors, and local political leaders.

More recently, Oz has said Americans must “earn the right” to be on Medicaid, and said current Medicaid users should “prove you matter.”

Critics, meanwhile, blasted Oz’s latest remarks.

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom responded, telling Oz, “You just stripped 17 million people of their healthcare.”

Dr. Rachel Bedard, an internist, geriatrician, and palliative care physician, wrote: “Stop being sick, Americans. They aren’t gonna tolerate it anymore.”

Anthony M. Hopper, who teaches healthcare administration, noted, “You know … We would be a lot healthier (in the future) if we spent more money on medical research.”

Retired professor MA Rasmussen wrote: “So you guys are OK with the gutting of the EPA, an agency created to protect us from polluted air & water & the Labor Department which enforces worker safety rules? I guess so. You’re all into blaming the individual rather than corporations or agribusiness or bad public policy.”

Watch the video … at this link.

Trump official brutally mocked after saying he was ‘not going to tolerate’ sick Americans

https://www.alternet.org/trump-official-sick-americans

Daily Mail: Court rules on Trump’s birthright citizenship plan

Posted on by
Reply

A federal appeals court delivered a blow to Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, deeming it unconstitutional. It’s the latest step in an ongoing battle between Trump and various judges in states far over his plan to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal migrants.

The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after Trump´s plan was also blocked by a federal judge in New Hampshire. It brings the issue one step closer to coming back quickly before the Supreme Court.

The 9th Circuit decision keeps a block on the Trump administration enforcing the order that would deny citizenship to children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily. ‘The district court correctly concluded that the Executive Order´s proposed interpretation, denying citizenship to many persons born in the United States, is unconstitutional. We fully agree,’ the majority wrote.

The 2-1 ruling keeps in place a decision from U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Seattle, who blocked Trump´s effort to end birthright citizenship and decried what he described as the administration´s attempt to ignore the Constitution for political gain. The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The Supreme Court has since restricted the power of lower court judges to issue orders that affect the whole country, known as nationwide injunctions. But the 9th Circuit majority found that the case fell under one of the exceptions left open by the justices.

…

The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment says that all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens. Justice Department attorneys argue that the phrase ‘subject to United States jurisdiction’ in the amendment means that citizenship isn´t automatically conferred to children based on their birth location alone. The states – Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon – argue that ignores the plain language of the Citizenship Clause as well as a landmark birthright citizenship case in 1898 where the Supreme Court found a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a citizen by virtue of his birth on American soil.

Appeals court finds effort to end birthright citizenship illegal
It’s the latest step in an ongoing battle between Trump and various judges in states far over his plan to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal migrants.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14934995/Court-decision-Donald-Trump-birthright-citizenship.html

Harpar’s Bazaar: What Should Artists Do When Alligator Alcatraz Moves Next Door?

Posted on by
Reply

The Florida Everglades are home to a diverse community of artists. The Trump administration targeted this area to build a controversial ICE detention center, and residents are fighting back.

On June 14, Dakota Osceola was wrapping up the day, selling her bead art and necklaces at a festival in Miami, when she heard the news from a friend.

A new immigrant detention facility, to be named Alligator Alcatraz, would be built on a 10,500-foot-long old airport strip inside the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades.

“How is this happening right now?” she thought.

Home of the indigenous Miccosukee and Seminole people, the Everglades are the largest wetland ecosystem in the United States and the land where Osceola’s family grew up. This territory is considered a sacred place to tribe members and a national wildlife treasure to Floridians. But in less than 10 days, a portion of the Everglades was seized by the state and paved over to make room for a new prison built to hold up to 3,000 immigrants, a move supported by the Trump administration as a means to detain undocumented people.

On June 28, in the scorching heat, Osceola decided to go voice her opposition to this detention camp. Grassroots organizations such as Friends of the Everglades and Unidos Immokalee voiced environmental and human-rights concerns. Alongside independent activists, artists from the South Florida community joined with their protest art and signs to defend the home that has inspired them and that they love.

Outside the gates of the detention facility, and in the center of the Everglades, hundreds of Floridians gathered, chanting and holding up signs. Miccosukee tribal elder and environmental activist Betty Osceola, with Love the Everglades Movement, used her megaphone to address the crowd and keep people safe. Demonstrators lined up on the narrow road, north of the Tamiami Trail, as dozens of trucks with machinery entered the old Dade-Collier Airport, where the facility was being built. In the weeks since, different organizations have continued to arrange protests and gatherings weekly in front of these gates. There have been peaceful prayer vigils with no signs allowed, a protest asking to shut down the Everglades concentration camp, and family members of detainees gathered along with grassroots human-rights organizations, and a Catholic archbishop is waiting to see if he can hold a mass at the gates.

Outside the gates of the detention facility, and in the center of the Everglades, hundreds of Floridians gathered, chanting and holding up signs. Miccosukee tribal elder and environmental activist Betty Osceola, with Love the Everglades Movement, used her megaphone to address the crowd and keep people safe. Demonstrators lined up on the narrow road, north of the Tamiami Trail, as dozens of trucks with machinery entered the old Dade-Collier Airport, where the facility was being built. In the weeks since, different organizations have continued to arrange protests and gatherings weekly in front of these gates. There have been peaceful prayer vigils with no signs allowed, a protest asking to shut down the Everglades concentration camp, and family members of detainees gathered along with grassroots human-rights organizations, and a Catholic archbishop is waiting to see if he can hold a mass at the gates.

A member of the Seminole tribe, Osceola was aware of how hard the tribes fought in the 1970s to stop the construction of the old airport due to the environmental damage it would cause to the fragile ecosystem of the Glades. That battle was won when the construction came to a halt due to growing opposition from environmentalist groups. But now, into that abandoned air strip, the construction trucks started coming in, creating more and more traffic inside the Big Cypress National Preserve. Then, a sign with the words “Alligator Alcatraz” went up overnight, sparking sinister national jokes, memes, and merch about the alligators eating anyone who tries to escape this jail.

Protesters had different reasons to voice their opposition to the detention center: It would harm a fragile ecosystem and is not environmentally sound; it is an inappropriate use of FEMA funds; conditions there are inhumane. When Florida lawmakers visited the facility on a limited tour, they described 32 people per cage in the sweltering heat, exposed to bug infestations and fed meager meals, with prisoners crying for help and even one person pleading, “I’m a U.S. citizen!”

An important point ignored in national coverage is that the construction involves a seizure by the state of Miami-Dade-owned land under the guise of an emergency. The Miccosukee tribe joined other environmental groups, such as Love the Everglades, in suing federal and state agencies for failing to conduct an environmental review, as required by federal law, before initiating the project. Meanwhile, the ACLU is suing the Trump administration because of a lack of access to counsel at the detention center.

“I see my relatives, my family, in those cages. They came here undocumented, overstayed their visas, and eventually became citizens,” says Aubrey Brown, a Florida-based storyteller and artist who contributed to the protest sign art. Brown, who shares stories about Florida’s history with her 40,000 followers on social media, couldn’t stay silent and decided to speak up against the detention center, risking backlash. “I’ve always tried to stress that history and politics are inextricably intertwined,” she adds. Challenging the false narrative used by the president to make others believe there is nothing but fierce alligators and swamps in the Everglades, Brown argues, “People must understand that the Everglades is not a wasteland; this is people’s home. The Glades are wild, sacred, and free. It’s where the Seminoles went to hide from being captured, and it is where I go when I want to get away from everything.”

Acting as if no people exist in the Everglades, the federal government decided to seize land belonging to Miami-Dade County, completely ignoring the sovereignty of tribal nations at Big Cypress and that both their ceremonial and ancestral burial grounds stand near the facility.

“When it comes to my Seminole and Miccosukee friends, people treat them like they are not here anymore and are a relic of history,” Brown adds.

Once considered a swing state, Florida is now ground zero for the MAGA base supporting cruel anti-immigration policies. Built undercover, this facility was estimated to cost taxpayers $450 million a year. However, according to a review of purchases, the state has already spent $250 million on it in less than one month.

President Trump said that the facility would cage “some of the most vicious people on the planet” to be deported. Yet, a report released by the Miami Herald debunked this narrative, showing that hundreds of the detainees have no criminal charges.

Kidnapped without a warrant, stripped of their civil rights, and placed into a black hole where attorneys cannot reach their clients, only a third of detainees have a criminal conviction. But the public cannot see the nature of the sentence they received. ICE has so far offered the press only top-level statistics, which do not show whether a sentence is for a traffic violation or a murder attempt. Not only do the reports withhold details about the alleged offenses of each detainee, but ICE has not made public the records specifying how it targets the people it takes to detention centers, especially those without criminal charges. In response, The Guardian has decided to sue the Trump administration for withholding public documents from the press, which are a matter of clear public interest right now.

Maria Theresa Barbist, a Miami-based artist and psychologist who explores trauma, memory, and collective healing in her works, attended and made signs for the protest. “I am from Austria, and we have a dark history there. We have done this before. We have put people in concentration camps, and we know how this story ends. It’s our responsibility as descendants of Nazis never to let that happen again,” she says.

“The Nazis did not start with Auschwitz; they started with driving people out of their homes and putting them into camps. It was not just Jewish people, it was immigrants too,” she adds.

“This is not the first concentration camp being placed; they are just getting warmed up. Project 2025 is going to extend for at least the next four years,” says Eddie Aroyo, an artist who explores themes of power structures and attended the protest. “This is about absolute conquest,” he adds, referring to a conservative white nationalist agenda that opposes abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity.

Democratic Florida representative Maxwell Frost visited the detention center on July 13 and shared on social media, “I didn’t see any Europeans who overstayed their visa. I saw nothing but Latino men and Haitian men. They are targeting specific types of people. And it’s the type of people that look like me.”

A few miles away from the detention camp, artist and native Floridian Sterling Rook, who attended the protest, is currently completing an artist residency in the Everglades National Park. Hosted by AIRIE (Artists in Residence in Everglades), this program allows artists to explore work related to the environment. The first day he entered the residency was also the day the first buses carrying migrants arrived in the Everglades. “It’s beautiful out here, but now I think about this every day, how 30 miles away from here there are people in tents in a terrible situation,” he says. “I’m not necessarily a political artist, but you become political just by the nature of your situation,” he adds. Rook used his residency time to work on a Glades skiff boat, which is known for navigating the marshy waters of the Everglades.

“As a performance, I would love to ride it out into ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ maybe leave it there as a symbol of rescue and escape. But I also struggle with self-censorship,” he says.

This self-censorship comes from a place of very real fear about political persecution of artists who speak up. “There are genuine and considerable threats when speaking out against any of these violent governmental policies, especially in Florida,” says Johann C. Muñoz-Tapasco, an artist and organizer affiliated with the local collective Artists for Artists Miami (A4A: MIA). “Numerous artists have chosen to disengage from sought-after exhibition platforms and institutions altogether. Others have lost their jobs and clients. Many more have self-censored as a form of self-preservation.”

Federal and state funding cuts to the arts, combined with the elimination of National Endowment for the Arts grants and Florida’s political climate, have led many artists, organizations, and institutions that depend on this funding to limit freedom of expression, fearing retaliation or even more economic cuts. AIRIE did not respond to my request for a statement on its stance on this issue. The majority of Florida’s art institutions and organizations have remained silent.

A4A: MIA is currently discussing collaborative projects and planning actions against this detention facility, but it recognizes that American artists have been woefully unprepared to respond to the rise of fascism. “Since the postwar era, the ways artists validate their work and fund their practices have been tied to the tastes and whims of those in power,” misael soto, a Miami-based artist, educator, and organizer affiliated with this organization, stated. “Now those at the top whom we’ve been dependent on, on whichever side of the political spectrum, are mostly kneeling to fascism. Artists have to come to terms with how they sustain their practices and how this is intrinsically tied to their art.”

Mae’anna Osceola-Hart, a photographer and member of the Panther Clan and the Seminole tribe, participated in organizing the protest and lives within walking distance of the detention camp. Her grandfather was one of the tribe members who fought the development of the Dade-Collier Airport. These days, the traffic on the Big Cypress reserve is becoming increasingly dangerous, and she describes seeing the wildlife already being displaced. “The deer and bears now walk on the side of the road,” she says.

“My heart sinks, seeing how this concentration camp is affecting the land that protected us indigenous people since time immemorial, the environmental impacts it’s already causing, along with how it’s already harming human beings and their rights. Just yesterday, I saw three cars coming in with people wanting to take a photo in front of the [Alligator Alcatraz] sign, treating it like a roadside attraction,” she says.

“It feels like a fever dream.”

What Should Artists Do When Alligator Alcatraz Moves Next Door?
The Florida Everglades are home to a diverse community of artists. The Trump administration targeted this area to build a controversial ICE detention center, and residents are fighting back.

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a65488687/artists-fight-alligator-alcatraz

MSNBC: Maddow Blog | Investigators in Signal chat probe reportedly found damaging evidence on Hegseth

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been nearly three months since the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General started looking into the Signal chat leak scandal, specifically examining Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s alleged use of a commercially available messaging app to discuss foreign military strikes. As NBC News reported in early April, “In addition to looking at whether Hegseth complied with rules governing classified information, the inspector general will also look at whether rules about record retention were followed.”

According to new reporting from The Washington Post, the scrutiny isn’t going especially well for the beleaguered secretary.

By now, the basic elements of the “Signalgate” controversy are probably familiar: Top members of Donald Trump’s national security team participated in an unsecured group chat about sensitive operational details of a foreign military strike — and they accidentally included a journalist, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, in their online conversation.

The final paragraph of Goldberg’s piece on the fiasco read, “All along, members of the Signal group were aware of the need for secrecy and operations security. In his text detailing aspects of the forthcoming attack on Houthi targets, Hegseth wrote to the group — which, at the time, included me — ‘We are currently clean on OPSEC,’” referring to “operations security.”

In other words, the defense secretary was certain that he and his colleagues — while chatting on a free platform that has never been approved for chats about national security or classified intelligence — had locked everything down and created a secure channel of communication.

Of course, we now know that Team Trump was most certainly not “clean on OPSEC,” Hegseth’s confidence notwithstanding.

What’s more, while there was some discussion about the nature of the shared details, there’s no denying the chat did include highly sensitive information about times and targets, much of which was put there by Hegseth himself.

“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package),” Hegseth told his colleagues in the chat. “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME) — also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s).” At one point, the defense secretary literally wrote, “THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP.”

Now the Post, with a report that has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, tells readers that the strike plans shared by Hegseth originated from a classified email written by Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the top commander overseeing U.S. military operations in the Middle East. The article added:

CBS News ran a related report pointing to the same revelations.

Despite all of this, a Pentagon spokesperson told the Post, “The Department stands behind its previous statements: no classified information was shared via Signal. As we’ve said repeatedly, nobody was texting war plans and the success of the Department’s recent operations — from Operation Rough Rider to Operation Midnight Hammer — are proof that our operational security and discipline are top notch.”

The second part of this defense doesn’t seem to make logical sense — the success of the mission doesn’t necessarily mean that Hegseth was responsible with sensitive national security secrets — and the first part appears to be at odds with the available information about what transpired.

Complicating matters, this is not the only area of potential trouble for the former Fox News host who was confirmed despite bipartisan opposition. Politico published a report last week, which also hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, that noted two related IG investigations that are also ongoing.

It’s worth noting for context that the existence of these reports suggests not only that Hegseth is facing serious scrutiny, but also that some officials within the Pentagon want the public to know that Hegseth is facing serious scrutiny. Watch this space.

Would somebody please just fire Hegseth’s sorry ass and get it done!!!

Maddow Blog | Investigators in Signal chat probe reportedly found damaging evidence on Hegseth
The Pentagon inspector general’s investigation into Pete Hegseth is ongoing, and new reporting suggests it’s not going well for the defense secretary.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/maddow-blog-investigators-in-signal-chat-probe-reportedly-found-damaging-evidence-on-hegseth/ar-AA1JdsxH

The Nation: Punished for Playing by the Rules: the Deliberate Cruelty of Trump’s Deportation Regime

Posted on by
Reply

Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema, 20, dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans on a Tuesday morning in June and took the subway from Bushwick to Lower Manhattan. She walked into the Jacob Javits Federal building at 26 Federal Plaza, a few blocks north of City Hall, took her keys and phone out of her pockets to pass through security, and got in an elevator up to the 12th-floor courtroom of Judge Donald Thompson. Like the vast majority of people appearing in immigration court, she had no lawyer with her. Chipantiza-Sisalema’s parents and younger brother had made the brutal journey from Ecuador to the United States in 2022, part of an increasing number of Ecuadorans propelled north as their country destabilized. They settled in New York—where a large Ecuadoran population has been part of the city since the 1970s—and filed a claim for asylum. Chipantiza-Sisalema joined her parents last year, crossing into the US at El Paso in May 2024. In the volatile political climate in Ecuador, she had faced threats and stalking, her father later told reporters. Immigration officials in El Paso determined Chipantiza-Sisalema was not a flight risk or a danger to the community, so she was permitted to go on to New York to her family and told to appear in court more than a year later. She followed the rules.

The June 24 hearing at 26 Federal Plaza was her first immigration hearing. It was brief. Judge Thompson scheduled her next date for March 2026. But when Chipantiza-Sisalema stepped out of the courtroom to return home, masked men grabbed her. She was hustled down to the 10th floor of the courthouse. She would remain there for nine days—without being charged or ever given the opportunity to contest her detention, without access to an attorney, sleeping on the floor, with minimal food and nowhere to bathe. In hasty one-minute phone calls, Chipantiza-Sisalema told her parents there were at least 70 other people there. The small number of holding cells in the federal building are meant to be used just for a few hours before someone is transferred to a different facility, attorneys familiar with the building explained. There is no provision for meals and no beds. When she was put on a plane and transferred to the for-profit Richwood Detention facility in Louisiana on the Fourth of July—before a New York judge had a chance to review the habeas corpus petition an attorney filed the day before—she was still wearing that same red shirt and blue jeans.

The overwhelming majority of immigrants whose cases are winding through the immigration court system show up for their hearings, believing that by adhering to the system’s labyrinthine requirements they’ll be rewarded with clearance to stay in the country. Or at least the chance to fight another day. But under President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation regime, abiding by the immigration system’s rules has become increasingly dangerous. Those who show up in court now routinely face arrest. But failure to appear for a hearing generally triggers a deportation order, attorneys explained. Immigrants, advocates, and elected officials at all levels are scrambling to confront what they say is lawlessness inside the courthouse and throughout the ICE detention system. “ICE is just detaining everyone and giving only some a right to a hearing, and it’s only the possibility of having a lawyer who will shout and scream for you that your case is heard,” said Melissa Chua, an attorney at the pro bono New York Legal Assistance Group, who is representing several people who, despite following US immigration procedure, are now in detention.

Chipantiza-Sisalema is just one of hundreds of people taken in the past month by masked ICE agents at Manhattan’s immigration courts, Harold Solis, co–legal director for the Brooklyn-based immigrant rights group Make the Road New York, told The Nation. “The truth is, I don’t think anyone has a full scope of how many people have been held there.” Make the Road is now representing Chipantiza-Sisalema. Similar scenes have played out in courthouses across the country, with immigrants often shuttled between several facilities before their family or attorney can locate them. Beginning in April, it appeared to court observers in Manhattan that ICE was lying in wait for people whose cases were dismissed or who were ordered to be deported. Veteran attorneys say courthouse arrests had previously been extremely unusual. “In all my years of practice, it has never been a fact of life that going to immigration court leads to you being detained,” Solis said. By late June, ICE was routinely taking people even when, like Chipantiza-Sisalema, US immigration judges had ordered them to reappear several months in the future.

“People are being disappeared into this hole of 26 Federal Plaza for a prolonged period of time and in deplorable conditions,” said Kendal Nystedt, an attorney at the rights group Unlocal whose client was held there for six days. The New York Immigration Coalition is representing someone held for three weeks, executive director Murad Awawdeh said. The vast majority, maybe as many as 99 percent, according to a close court watcher who asked not to be identified because of the nature of her work, do not have an attorney.

“If you’re someone without a family member or no one has alerted us to you, there is no way for us to know what has happened,” said Chua. “They are really creating this shadow place that can deny people protections they are afforded by our Constitution.”

In the chaotic seconds as immigrants exit courtrooms, volunteer observers hastily attempt to catch people’s names, alien registration numbers, and contacts for family members before ICE strongarms them into elevators and out of sight. The hope is that by collecting people’s names, their families will be able to find out where they are sent. A diffuse mutual aid network raises commissary funds, tries to connect people to counsel, and offers support to families left behind—often without a breadwinner. Ordinarily when someone is detained, they show up in the ICE detainee locator in a mattered of hours, attorneys said. But those held at 26 Federal Plaza and in irregular detention in courthouses elsewhere are listed only as “in transit” for the days-long duration of their stay. In this limbo state, their lawyers and families can’t reach them.

Chua and other attorneys emphasized that the spectacle of ICE sweeping people up in courthouses was a dramatic departure from norms—even in an immigration system hardly characterized by transparency or compassion. Several members of New York’s congressional delegation, including Representatives Adriano Espaillat, Daniel Goldman, Jerrold Nadler, and Nydia Velasquez, have tried to find out how many people are held at 26 Federal Plaza—and to assess conditions. They’ve all been rebuffed.

In a surreal, Kakfaesque incident, Bill Joyce, deputy director of the New York ICE field office, told Representatives Goldman and Nadler in June that the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza—where a shifting number of immigrants are held against their will for days on end—is not a detention facility. Rather, it is a place ICE is “housing [immigrants] until they can be detained.” Members of Congress have a right to inspect places where people are detained, but not, Joyce argued, a place they are merely “held.” On July 14, Espaillat and Velasquez were again prevented from inspecting the facility. The lawmakers are considering legal action against the Department of Homeland Security for preventing them from exercising their oversight rights, Espaillat said.

That people are held within a courthouse in a sanctuary city that considers itself the capital of immigrant America is an affront that has New York lawmakers searching for solutions. “We’re fighting this from the legal front and the budgeting front and the legislative front. And we’re fighting this in public opinion,” Espaillat said. Likewise, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said his office is seeking litigation in support and praised the efforts of court observers. A coalition of immigrants rights groups in Washington, DC, filed a class action suit in federal district court in DC on July 17, alleging that the courthouse arrests are a violation of due process. New York groups could soon follow.

While ICE is barred by state law from entering New York criminal and civil courts, 26 Federal Plaza is under federal jurisdiction. But standing beside Chipantiza-Sisalema’s bereft and terrified parents at a July 3 press conference, several elected officials called on New York Governor Kathy Hochul to find a way to intervene. Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, who represents parts of Brooklyn, thinks lawmakers, whose session ended mid-June, should return to Albany. “I also call on my governor, Kathy Hochul, to pass New York for All and to call us to a special session and get ICE out of our courts,” she said, referring to a bill that would extend some sanctuary protections to immigrants across New York State. Espaillat introduced HR 4176—The No Secret Police Act—in June. In the unlikely event it passes the Republican-controlled Congress, it would bar federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks or hiding their badges except in specific undercover instances. Last week, New York Attorney General Leticia James and a coalition of 20 attorneys general urged Congress to pass the bill and a bundle of similar legislation.

Closer to home, the New York City budget adopted at the end of June increased city funding for pro bono immigration lawyers by $76 million to $120 million in total, and the city’s law department filed amicus briefs in support of two detained New Yorkers this spring. But the New York Immigration Coalition wants to see a full right to counsel extended to immigration court. The rollout of city-funded right-to-counsel in housing court several years ago was not without complications, but it dramatically rebalanced the scale between tenants and landlords and has been copied elsewhere. New York wouldn’t be the first place to guarantee a right to an immigration lawyer. Oregon adopted universal access to representation in most immigration matters in 2022, said Isa Peña, director of strategy for Innovation Law Lab, based in Portland.

As courthouse arrests pile up, lawyers who are able to identify people being held are filing habeas corpus petitions in federal district courts, in hopes of keeping their clients from being transferred to distant detention facilities or deported—but also simply to compel the government to reveal where they are, dispelling the twilight status of being in perpetual “transit.” These petitions have the advantage of being heard by judges who are part of the federal judiciary—and perhaps more attuned to the rule of law than immigration court judges, who serve at the pleasure of the Department of Homeland Security.

In Buffalo, in a case since joined by the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Prisoners Legal Service is arguing that ICE’s aggressive presence in the halls of federal courthouses constitutes not just an escalation of Trump’s war on immigrants but a systematic attempt to deprive people of their due-process rights. “It’s a huge deviation in ICE tactics and unlawful in various ways,” said NYCLU attorney Amy Louise Belscher, who is representing Oliver Mata Velasquez in a habeas case. Mata Velasquez, 19, came to the United States from Venezuela in September 2024, using the CBPOne app the Biden administration required of asylum seekers.As with Chipantiza-Sisalema, immigration officials at the border determined Mata Velasquez was not a flight risk or a danger and permitted him to enter the country. He obtained work authorization and showed up May 21 for his first immigration hearing, as instructed. A judge told him to return in February 2026, but before he could leave the courthouse, ICE arrested him. Last week a judge ordered Mata Velasquez immediately released and forbade ICE from detaining him again without permission from the judge.

“Federal judges are finding these courthouse arrests unlawful,” Belscher said. “They are detaining people not because they are at risk of flight or a danger to the community, but because they are easy to find.” The NYCLU’s arguments for Mata Velasquez cite a bundle of cases successfully argued in Oregon, by the Innovation Law Lab. Those cases, named for ICE Seattle field office director Drew Bostock, argue that the courthouse arrests violate the immigrant’s right to due process. That such a violation is occurring precisely in the place one goes to seek justice has scandalized attorneys. “When we saw that people were targeted at the courthouse—where your fundamental freedoms are supposed to be upheld, we moved quickly to intervene,” Innovation Law Lab’s Peña said.

Some of the habeas petitions filed in New York last month resulted in judges’ issuing emergency orders to keep the person nearby, preventing ICE from venue shopping by sending the person to Texas or Louisiana.

People aren’t only being taken at court. Milton Maisel Perez y Perez, a teacher who fled his native Guatemala because of threats from gangs, has been in immigration proceedings for six years. Like hundreds of thousands of immigrants across the country, he gained the right to work legally and was required to check in periodically under the Department of Homeland Security’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). Last month, he went to the ISAP facility in Jamaica, Queens. It was perhaps the 50th time he’d done so, his attorney S. Michael Musa-Obregon said. This time, Perez y Perez was arrested. He was transferred to the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza and held for three days. After Musa-Obregon filed a habeas petition with the Southern District of New York, but before it could be heard by a judge, ICE prepared to move Perez y Perez to detention—clear across the country in Seattle. A judge’s order at the last minute had him removed from the plane and transferred to detention in Goshen, New York.

The courthouse arrests are a cynical campaign, Musa-Obregon said. “They are detaining people with the idea that it is much easier to get people to give up their rights when they are incarcerated,” he said. On the Fourth of July, Trump signed into law his massive spending bill, which included $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security. It makes ICE the largest law enforcement entity in the country and promises to vastly expand the for-profit immigrant detention system. The masked men in the halls of justice are just the beginning. But the ancient writ of habeas corpus appears to be working.

District Judge Analisa Torres ruled on Chipantiza-Sisalema’s habeas petition on July 13, ordering her immediate release. The manner of her arrest, the judge wrote, “offends the ordered system of liberty that is the pillar of the Fifth Amendment.” She was back in her parents’ arms on July 16. Snatched by masked men and held for three weeks, she’s one of the lucky ones.

Punished for Playing by the Rules: the Deliberate Cruelty of Trump’s Deportation Regime
Migrants who show up for their court dates now routinely face arrest by ICE. But failing to appear triggers a deportation order.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ice-trump-detention-regime-cruelty

Also here:

Punished for Playing by the Rules: the Deliberate Cruelty of Trump’s Deportation Regime

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/punished-for-playing-by-the-rules-the-deliberate-cruelty-of-trump-s-deportation-regime/ar-AA1JcQGd