Photos released on Thursday reveal, for the first time ever, the harsh conditions facing immigrants held in processing facilities run by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. The images help confirm what immigrant detainees have been saying for years: that detention centers are unsanitary and inhumane.
The video stills released on Thursday showcase atrocious conditions in three processing facilities — akin to jails— run by CBP in Tuscon, Douglas, and Casa Grande.
Women and children sleep on concrete floors with nothing but emergency blankets. Even though there are empty beds in empty cells, men are packed shoulder-to-shoulder into the same room and forced to sleep on the floor. Some have no form of cover at all even though immigrants have described the cells as ice boxes.
Although CBP’s facilities aren’t built to hold multiple detainees overnight — instead intended to be an initial processing step before undocumented immigrants are transferred to long-term facilities run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) —there’s evidence that immigrants end up staying there for days.
“These common reports of horrific conditions were dismissed as anecdotal for years because there was no evidence showing what the facilities looked like inside or what the conditions were really like,” National Immigration Law Center (NILC) Attorney Nora Preciado said. “Now the evidence released allows the public to see for themselves.”
But the video stills of those conditions almost didn’t come to light. They were only released because of a federal lawsuit against CBP that was filed by civil liberties groups, including NILC, the American Immigration Council, and the Arizona chapter of the ACLU. The plaintiffs argued the conditions of confinement were unconstitutional, claiming that CBP denies immigrants standard hygiene items and the ability to shower while simultaneously forcing them to stay in unsanitary environments.
According to Preciado, CBP fought the release of the photos tooth and nail. In court, the agency argued that the photos would threaten operations by giving people insight into what it does. In the end, its hand was forced by District Court Judge David Bury, who disagreed.
The agency released its own statement following the big reveal on Thursday.
“CBP works to ensure proper conditions and treatment of detainees in all of our holding facilities and is subject to unannounced inspections by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General of these facilities,” it said. It also emphasized the importance of keeping people safe, adding that it’s “committed to the safety, security and welfare of those in our custody, especially those who are most vulnerable.”
Border agents are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to the government’s complex system of detainment for immigrants who cross the border seeking asylum in the United States. Other agencies that hold immigrants don’t have any better of a reputation for treating detainees humanely.
Also on Thursday, the Department of Justice announced it will phase out its contracts with private prison companies. But that decision won’t improve the situation for the immigrants who are kept in private prisons that partner with the Department of Homeland Security, who will continue to suffer from deplorable conditions that sometimes drive detainees to suicide.
Private corporations manage 62 percent of immigration detention beds, and people detained in those facilities can spend years in equally deplorable conditions. Sexual abuse runs rampant, health care is denied, and people sleep on floors for extended periods of time.
The Human Rights Watch has determined that at least 18 people have died in ICE facilities because of medical neglect. And yet, much of what happens behind closed doors remains a mystery, because privately run facilities don’t have to answer federal records requests the way government and state run jails and prisons are legally obligated to.