NMILC Sues ICE For Failing To Comply FOIA Request In Investigation Of Inhumane Pepper Spraying of Immigrant Detainees
By: Jasmine McGee / NMILC Managing Attorney
Edited By: Flaviano Graciano / NMILC Communications Manager
The legal battle continues to find justice for 20 immigrant detainees inhumanely pepper sprayed for peacefully protesting at the Torrance County Detention Facility during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in May of 2020.
On January 7, 2022, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) under the Freedom of Information Act for failing to provide vital information needed in the ongoing investigation of the attack. The lawsuit was filed in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) and NMILC pro bono attorney Christopher Benoit of the Law Office of Lynn Coyle. FOIA gives the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency.
“Since its enactment in 1967, FOIA has helped to hold the government accountable to the governed, and requires governmental agencies to respond within 30 days of the submitted request,” NMILC Managing Attorney Jasmine McGee said.
NMILC filed the FOIA request over a year and a half ago in July of 2020 to obtain important information on ICE’s policies and procedures vital to the investigation of the pepper-spray attack. NMILC has yet to receive a single document from ICE related to the FOIA request.
The attack took place on May 14, 2020. Surveillance video shows 18 CoreCivic guards from the Torrance County Detention Facility rounding up the 20 detainees, forcing them to strip down and line up shoulder to shoulder. They then proceed to deploy pepper-spray canisters and grenades of OC spray on them. The men are seen dispersing in agony, desperately wiping their faces and gasping for air, some even falling to the ground.
“For far too long, DHS agencies including ICE have evaded their duty to provide citizens access to records that provide important, urgent information about their work,” stated Zoila Y. Alvarez, Immigrant Rights Staff Attorney with the ACLU-NM. “This lack of transparency, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, has fueled violations of immigrants’ civil rights in New Mexico and nationally.”
NMILC immediately sought information related to the attack as well as ICE’s oversight and policies related to this attack. Our team’s concern was, and continues to be, with the due process violations of the individual detainees, as well as concerns that this attack is only a part of a broader pattern of the use of chemical agents against ICE detainees by for-profit prison corporations.
“The FOIA records are crucial to understanding ICE’s oversight of for-profit corporations, like CoreCivic, who ICE has entrusted to ensure the safe and humane treatment of asylum seekers,” McGee said.
ICE contracted with Torrance County, who contracted with a private, for-profit prison corporation, CoreCivic, in October 2019 to house ICE detainees at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico. Only seven months later, ICE detainees were living in deteriorated living conditions, facing inadequate precautions against COVID-19 infection, and left without access to information regarding their civil immigration cases.
“We know that ICE knows that these for-profit corporations have unlawfully used chemical weapons against detainees, but what we don’t know is what ICE does next, if anything, and why they do not end contracts with these companies when there are violations of human rights,” McGee stated.
In July 2020, the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on the ICE Detention facilities and in particular asked about the use of pepper spray during the pandemic. It was thanks to NMILC’s role in working with a Searchlight reporter that the pepper spray incident was recorded and used as evidence that the use of pepper spray had occurred at CoreCivic Detention facilities during the pandemic.
ICE’s response is crucial to understanding how they are ensuring the safe and humane treatment of individuals detained under their authority.
“Government transparency is fundamental to our democracy. But it is disappearing,” filing attorney Christopher Benoit stated. “We are proud to represent NMILC which is committed to fighting for the public’s right to know how DHS and its component agencies treat detainees in New Mexico.”
Jasmine McGee is a Managing Attorney for the NMILC leading the Detention & Asylum Program.
Posted January 25, 2022 by Flaviano Graciano, NMILC Communications Manager.
