Blog Rewind: NMILC & ACLU Seek Justice For Asylum Seekers Pepper-sprayed At Torrance Facility Protesting Lack of COVID-19 Precautions
Updated May 14, 2022:
Today, marks the second anniversary since asylum seekers in the Torrance County Detention Facility were brutally attacked with pepper spray by CoreCivic guards in response to their peaceful hunger strike during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center (NMILC) and the ACLU-New Mexico (ACLU-NM) continue their fight to find these men justice for what they suffered at the hands of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Torrance County Detention Facility.
At the moment there is ongoing litigation against ICE for failing to comply to a Freedom of Information Act request. However, Jasmine McGee, NMILC’s Managing Attorney says ICE has started turning over the requested documents, but slowly. She also says there is ongoing litigation against CoreCivic in state court.
“We are still in the process of discovery and moving towards compelling CoreCivic to produce requested documents,” McGee stated.
NMILC is currently working on an in-depth analysis blog to update our readers on the current state of the Torrance County Detention Facility and the work being carried out by our collaborative with the ACLU-NM and EPIC to continue fighting for justice for immigrant detainees being held at the detention center.
A year ago, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, asylum seekers held at the privately-run immigrant detention center in Estancia, New Mexico were brutally attacked with pepper spray by guards. Why? For engaging in a peaceful hunger strike calling attention to the lack of precautions against COVID-19 and the abysmal conditions they found themselves in. This week, the ACLU-NM, the NM Immigrant Law Center, and Santa Fe Dreamers Project are suing Torrance County and CoreCivic, the private company that operates the Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) for this horrifying attack.
The men who were attacked by the guards began a peaceful hunger strike after weeks of pleading with detention officials for increased distancing measures, personal protective equipment, COVID testing, non-toxic cleaning supplies and general communication about the virus, in which they were consistently dismissed. Shortly thereafter, TCDF confirmed its first case of COVID-19.
On May 14, 2020, three days into their hunger strike, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the warden of the facility demanded that they end their strike. When the men refused to end their hunger strike, a constitutionally protected form of expression, dozens of guards entered wearing full smocks, gas masks, and shields, and proceeded to throw multiple grenades of pepper spray into the dormitory, emptying several cans of industrial-grade pepper spray directly in their faces. Guards blocked the exits and forced everyone to huddle in one corner of the room. The men screamed as their skin and eyes burned and gasped for air as the pepper spray irritated and constricted their lungs. Some lost consciousness. The medical team refused to enter the unventilated room that was full of toxic fumes.
Lapel image shows officers getting into formation moments before pepper-spraying asylum seekers protesting lack of COVID-19 precautions and misinformation.
After a botched decontamination process, these men, all asylum seekers, were placed in solitary confinement. Two of them attempted suicide.
Unfortunately, this attack is not exceptional, rather it highlights the daily horrors that play out throughout the U.S. immigrant detention system. To begin, ICE is not required to detain people seeking asylum. In fact, ICE’s own policy instructs that asylum seekers should be released while awaiting rulings in their cases, provided they meet certain requirements. Yet time and time again, ICE chooses to detain people, like these asylum seekers, for profit, rather than allowing them to stay with family or community members as their cases proceed. If the government chooses to detain people, it must protect their health, safety, and well-being. Contracting with private corporations that profit off of human suffering runs counter to that obligation. Every year, our organizations receive reports of human rights violations, such as medical neglect, sexual abuse, and retaliatory uses of segregation, in privately-run immigration facilities.
Ultimately, New Mexico must stop contracting with private prison corporations like CoreCivic. This past legislative session, we and other advocates pushed to formally end all privately-run detention facilities, including ICE detention centers, in New Mexico. Subjecting people fleeing persecution to further harm and violence is an affront to our laws and values as a nation. Until we can end these practices, we will marshall all of our resources to hold government agencies and private corporations accountable when they violate immigrants’ rights. If they continue to abuse their power, we’ll see them in court.
Arifa Raza is the Detention Program Supervising Attorney for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center & Nadia Cabrera-Mazzeo is a Staff Attorney with the ACLU-NM
Original Blog Written by Arifa Raza, NMILC Detention Program Supervising Attorney & Nadia Cabrera-Mazzeo, ACLU Staff Attorney (Originally Published May 27, 2021)