Latino Immigrants Denounce Abuses of Power in Suicide Attempts Inside Detention Center | The NY Journal
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They complain that they are treated as if they were in a “maximum security prison” and not as asylum seekers who are
The complainants also accuse of medical negligence inside the facilities.
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John Moore / Getty Images
A coalition of organizations released on Tuesday a series of letters in which immigrants denounce Abuses of Power and Medical Malpractice Inside the La Palma Detention Center, Arizona, including at least nine suicide attempts.
In one of the letters sent by a group of 11 Cubans, the immigrants claim that they are treated as if they were “in a maximum security prison” and not as asylum seekers. “They treat us like animals; we have received even blows, ”they say in the letter released by Trans Queen Pueblo, Detention Watch Network, No More Deaths, Planned Parenthood and Santa Fe Dreamers Project.
They claim that the conditions are so unbearable that at least nine people have already attempted suicide. According to the immigrants, several of them have cut their veins, others have tried to hang themselves, while one more “swallowed” a blade and a link of chain.
The group argues that immigrants are desperate for lockdown time, without a release date, and that the Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) has not provided them with any kind of psychological help and that they only choose to send them to isolation cells.
They indicate that in addition to the people who have attempted suicide, at least other 140 have gone on hunger strike or protests against the treatment they receive on La Palma.
Similar complaints were expressed by immigrant members of the LGTB community in other letters in which they assure that their complaints are never heard and that they are victims of sexual harassment.
“We applaud the efforts of these migrants to denounce the horrible abuse that they live in the center of La Palma. We know that no one is safe in ICE custody. This is an arbitrary and xenophobic system and ICE operates under a culture of violence that results in abuse. We must listen to complaints from people in detention and act urgently to eliminate the immigration detention system entirely“Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network, said in a press release.
In their letters the immigrants express concern for their lives in the absence of equipment to protect themselves from the spread of the COVID-19 virus. They claim that the negligence of ICE is what caused so many cases of contagion to be registered in recent months.
Since last February and until September 18, a total of 366 positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported in La Palma, which makes it the detention center with the highest number of accumulated cases in the country.
According to official ICE figures, there are currently only 11 active cases of COVID-19 in the center.
Detained immigrants sue ICE for preventing them from making phone calls to family and lawyers
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