FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, January 20, 2012
Contact: Victoria Lopez, ACLU of Arizona, 602-773-6011, vlopez@acluaz.org
Carlos Garcia, Puente Movement, 520-248-1697
PHOENIX— A coalition of local and national immigrants’ and civil rights organizations, faith groups and community members today called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end its detention contract with the Pinal County Jail (PCJ) in Florence, Arizona.
In a letter to ICE Director John Morton, the groups urged ICE to end its contract with the jail based on a record of systemic and persistent civil and human rights abuses that have been documented by various organizations including the ACLU of Arizona, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights First and others.
The letter is part of a campaign effort by advocates to draw attention to the abuses in the immigration detention system. “Our families and communities are being devastated by ICE detention, which places people in far-off jails with few resources and minimal human contact. This kind of treatment is inhumane and unacceptable,” said Carlos Garcia with the Puente Movement. “We will continue to educate and mobilize people in Arizona to demand an end to the contract with PCJ and immigration detention altogether,” he added.
Despite statements by ICE almost two years ago indicating initiatives to reform the immigration detention system, advocates state in their letter that, “The culture and conditions at the Pinal County Jail are clearly punitive and harsh. There have been minimal changes at PCJ since the agency’s statements over two years ago indicating a shift away from utilizing jail-like facilities. With repeated deficient ratings and serious problems reported by detainees, Pinal County Jail is a prime example of a facility that should not be utilized for immigration detention.”
Arizona advocates regularly receive reports from detained individuals and their families about major problems at PCJ including inadequate medical care, insufficient hygiene supplies, no contact visits with family, no outdoor recreation and verbal abuse by jail personnel. These problems have persisted in the jail for many years. For example, in the winter 2010, ICE transferred hundreds of immigrant women out of PCJ after the women submitted petition letters complaining of abusive treatment. In the spring 2011, men detained at the same jail began a hunger strike to protest many of the same problems.
“No amount of cosmetic fixes will take care of the fact that immigration detention presents major fiscal and human costs for immigrants and citizens alike,” added Victoria Lopez, Program Director at the ACLU of Arizona. “ICE should take immediate steps to end its contract with Pinal County Jail officials who aren’t being held accountable and operate a facility that fails to meet basic human rights and needs."
PCJ is one of five detention centers contracted by ICE to detain 3,000 immigrant detainees on any given day in Eloy and Florence, Arizona. Advocates are calling on ICE to terminate its contract with Pinal County Jail, which according to news reports makes about $36,000 a night – or $13 million a year – off its contract with the federal government to detain immigrants.
Read the letter signed by national and local organizations.
Read the ACLU of Arizona’s report on immigration detention.
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