NM Courts Corrections and Justice Meeting on Private Immigration Detention Facilities

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Monday, Jul 16, 2018 the New Mexico Courts Corrections and Justice (CCJ) committee met to discuss oversight of private immigration detention facilities within the state. Our organization, along with CAFé, sent a delegation to the hearing.

To the CCJ committee members, a large contingency of formerly detained individuals gave powerful testimony regarding their experiences of detention. Many individuals described experiences in ICE detention facilities in New Mexico that are similar to those detailed in government documents ()  and advocacy reports (). To each member of the CCJ committee, our organization also sent a letter calling for the end of ICE immigration detention and immediate independent oversight. The letter was signed by more than 25 advocacy organizations. The entire four hour hearing can be viewed online. Both local (here and here) as well as national news outlets covered the event.

Joselin Mendez, 28, told New Mexico state legislators about being held in solitary confinement while detained at the Cibola County Correctional Center. She was among many former detainees who asked lawmakers to prevent contract renewals with private prison companies and the federal government at a hearing on July 16, 2018 at the Capitol in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Credit: Sara MacNeil/PRI

Bibliography

NIJC. “What Kind of Miracle...The Systematic Violation of Immigrants’ Right to Counsel at the Cibola County Correctional Center.” Washington D. C.: National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), 2017. http://immigrantjustice.org/research-items/report-what-kind-miracle-systematic-violation-immigrants-right-counsel-cibola-county.
USCCR. “With Liberty and Justice for All: The State of Civil Rights at Immigration Detention Facilities.” A Briefing Before the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Statutory Enforcement Report. Washington D. C.: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2015. http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/Statutory_Enforcement_Report2015.pdf.
DHS OIG. “ICE’s Inspections and Monitoring of Detention Facilities Do Not Lead to Sustained Compliance or Systemic Improvements.” Washington D. C.: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), 2018. https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2018-06/OIG-18-67-Jun18.pdf.
DHS OIG. “Concerns about ICE Detainee Treatment and Care at Detention Facilities.” Washington, D.C.: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), December 11, 2017. https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2017-12/OIG-18-32-Dec17.pdf.
Craig, Nathan, and Margaret Brown Vega. “‘Why Doesn’t Anyone Investigate This Place?’: Complaints Made by Migrants Detained at the Otero County Processing Center, Chaparral, NM Compared to Department of Homeland Security Inspections and Reports.” El Paso, TX: Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee (DMSC) and Freedom for Immigrants (FFI), 2018. https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/report-on-otero.
DMSC. “‘I Was Treated Like a Dog Instead of a Human Being:’ Degradation, Negligence, and Abuse in ICE’s El Paso Processing Center.” El Paso, TX: Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee (DMSC), 2016. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/cd161d_d3613011a196457683b68c2c848eb57b.pdf.
Carey, Emily P. “Outsourcing Responsibility: The Human Cost of Privatized Immigration Detention in Otero County.” Las Cruces, NM: The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, 2011. https://www.aclu-nm.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/OCPC-Report.pdf.
HRF. “Violations at the Border: The El Paso Sector.” New York: Human Rights First: American Ideals, Universal Values, February 2017. https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/violations-border-el-paso-sector.