Lawsuit alleges ‘horrific’ conditions at US immigration facility in Chicago

Two immigrants detained in Chicago, Illinois, have filed a class-action lawsuit against senior DHS employees, alleging they received unfair treatment and denied legal counsel.

The US rights watchdog, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), released the lawsuit’s (PDF) PDF on Friday.

Since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown earlier this year, it highlights the worsening conditions at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview.

According to Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office and lead counsel on the lawsuit, “everyone has the right to access counsel and not be subject to horrific and inhumane conditions.”

“Community members are being abducted off the streets, locked up in hold cells, denied access to basic necessities, medical care, and legal rights, and forced to renounce them.”

The defendants, Felipe Agustin Zamacona and Pablo Moreno Gonzalez, have been living in the United States for more than 30 years as immigrants. Both are currently being held inside the Broadview facility.

Senior Trump officials, including ICE Director Todd Lyons and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, are named defendants in their lawsuit.

The most recent complaint alleges abuse and neglect in immigration facilities. In August, a similar class-action lawsuit was brought against the Trump administration, highlighting the detention facility in New York City’s 26 Federal Plaza.

The Broadview facility, a two-story office building that serves as ICE’s “primary processing facility” in the Chicago area, is the subject of Friday’s complaint, which zooms in on the complaint.

However, the two immigrants’ attorneys contend that the facility’s capacity to house them outweighs its own.

Nearly 5, 202 people were detained at Broadview between January and July of this year, according to the lawsuit’s ICE data. At any given time, the facility has at least 200 people inside.

Since the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz on September 8, the numbers have increased. Midway Blitz, which Noem and the Department of Homeland Security spearheaded, was intended to increase immigration arrests in Chicago.

According to the class action, that push has put strain on the Broadview facility. It states that while Broadview was intended to be a “holding facility” for short-term detention, it is now being used for “warehousing people” for “days on end.”

According to the lawsuit, ICE officers allegedly held eight women for at least a day in an isolation room intended for singles.

“Broadview’s overcrowding is so extreme that people are forced to stand in cramped conditions due to the increased number of immigration arrests during Operation Midway Blitz.” Detainees are frequently unable to lie down on the floor.

Additionally, it includes cockroach and centipede infestations, overflowing toilets, and rooms with bodily fluid on the walls.

One anonymous woman is quoted as saying in the lawsuit, “We told the guards that the place was at full capacity, but they kept bringing people inside.” No one treats their pets like that, so they treated us like animals, or worse than animals.

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that detainees have been denied access to clean, safe, and adequate medical care.

The complaint claims that the conversations took place in a central location where federal officers were able to listen in, despite the fact that some detainees have been given the option to call or text their families for a brief while.

According to the lawsuit, some detainees have been denied access to outside communication completely, and access to religious institutions has been restricted for both lawyers and religious leaders.

Federal representatives are also prohibited from entering immigration facilities, according to the lawsuit, which includes members of Congress who are tasked with overseeing them.

“An attorney’s access is not a privilege.” Nate Eimer, a partner at the law firm Eimer Stahl and co-counsel in the lawsuit, said in a statement that this is a right.

“We can debate immigration policy, but it is not about denying people legal rights and keeping them inhumanely and unlawfully detained.”

The Trump administration has consistently refuted allegations of ICE facility abuse.

However, as abuse reports increase, Operation Midway Blitz has been closely watched since its launch.

Advocates accuse the aggressive immigration operation, which is frequently carried out by armed, masked agents, of demonstrating a “pattern of extreme brutality.”

Source: Aljazeera