NMILC Files Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Complaint Against Cibola County Correctional Center
Media Contact Email: Sophia Genovese, sgenovese@nmilc.org
The following press release mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering self-harm or suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or at 988.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Monday, April 17th. The New Mexico Immigrant Law Center (NMILC) along with partner organizations at Innovation Law Lab, the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and the New Mexico Dream Team filed a civil rights and civil liberties (CRCL) complaint against the Cibola County Correctional Center (CCCC) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The complaint can be accessed here.
CCCC is a privately owned and operated detention facility in Milan, New Mexico that detains recently arrived asylum seekers in civil immigration custody pursuant to an intergovernmental services agreement (IGSA) with ICE. The CRCL complaint highlights extreme medical neglect including failure to intervene in a mental health crisis culminating in a suicide attempt, unlivable conditions of confinement including a rat infestation, and misconduct by prison and ICE officials. In addition to submitting declarations from individuals detained at Cibola, the NMILC in partnership with a New Mexico Highlands University social work graduate student, Arabella Eagar, conducted a survey of detained asylum seekers at Cibola. This survey collected critical data points in demonstrating the ongoing issues plaguing the detention facility.
In response to these testimonies and data points, advocates are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security’s CRCL office 1) investigate the detention conditions at Cibola, 2) investigate the medical neglect, including inadequate response to mental health crises, at Cibola, and 3) recommend closure of the facility.
Sophia Genovese, Managing Attorney for the asylum and detention programs at the NMILC said:
“The conditions at Cibola have worsened over the past year, culminating in suicide attempts and a mental health crisis amongst already traumatized asylum seekers. We continue to witness these atrocities - from unlivable conditions of confinement to inadequate medical and mental health care - across all ICE facilities in New Mexico. Despite countless complaints from advocates and detained migrants, the Department of Homeland Security has failed to hold these actors accountable. The failure to remedy these ongoing problems underscores the need to end immigration detention in New Mexico entirely.”
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The New Mexico Immigrant Law Center is a non-profit organization seeking to advance justice and equity by empowering low-income immigrant communities through collaborative legal services, advocacy, and education.
