Los Angeles Times
By Patrick McGreevy
April 1, 2016
Daniel
Usman fled his native Pakistan to escape death threats from men upset
that he had converted from Islam to Catholicism. Upon arrival at Los
Angeles International Airport, the 35-year-old
with a college degree in electronics asked for asylum.
What
he got instead, he said, was a nearly four-month stay at the Theo Lacy
Facility, a detention center run by the Orange County Sheriff's
Department that accepts immigration holds on contract
with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
Usman said he was kept in a cold area without a coat, provided poor medical treatment and was mistreated by the staff.
“It’s a nightmare inside,” he said. “They treated us unjustly.”
It
is immigrants such as Usman whom state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell
Gardens) and civil rights groups had in mind Friday when they proposed
sweeping new standards and restrictions on the immigrant
detention facilities in California.
In
a political challenge to the use of private, for-profit detention
centers, the Democratic legislator is proposing to bar cities from
contracting with them on behalf of ICE, and to allow
those detained to file civil actions against the facility’s operator if
their rights are violated.
The right to bring civil action would also apply to detainees in facilities that are not privately run, such as Theo Lacy.
“The
Dignity not Detention Act takes a stand against the mass incarceration
of immigrants in detention facilities and inhumane immigration detention
conditions,” Lara said in a statement.
“Our state and local governments should not be complicit in this awful
practice of profiting off of human suffering.”
The
end goal would be to shut down private detention centers in California,
said Lara, who was expected to announce his legislation Friday in Los
Angeles.
ICE
contracts with four privately run detention facilities in California
that hold about 3,700 people each day, including immigrants in the
country illegally, asylum seekers, green card holders
and those awaiting immigration hearings.
Civil
rights groups have filed numerous complaints alleging the privately
operated facilities have denied proper medical care, pain medications
and meal accommodations for those with illnesses
or injuries.
“The
sheer number and consistency of violations of ICE’s federal standards
in California detention facilities really warrants immediate action by
the California Legislature,” said Christina
Fialho, executive director of the group Community Initiatives for
Visiting Immigrants in Confinement, or CIVIC.
The
Lara bill would adopt into state law basic health and safety standards
approved by ICE in 2011 and allow them to be enforced by the state.
Two
of the biggest privately operated lockups, the Adelanto Detention
Facility and Mesa Verde Detention Facility, are run by the Geo Group
under intergovernmental service agreements with
the cities of Adelanto and McFarland, respectively.
The
cities contract with the Geo Group to manage facility operations on a
day-to-day basis, Geo bills the city, and the city then bills ICE,
according to Lori K. Haley, a spokeswoman for
ICE.
“Per our agency policy, I am unable to comment on proposed or pending legislation,” she said.
The
Geo Group spokesman Pablo Paez said the firm would not comment on the
legislation, but he defended its record of care for detainees. The
detention centers provide around-the-clock medical
services, he said.
"Geo’s
facilities provide high quality services in safe, secure, and humane
residential environments, and our company strongly refutes allegations
to the contrary," Paez said in a statement.
The
state cannot tell the federal government what to do, but Lara’s bill
would block the cities from renewing their contracts, according to
Fialho.
“The
cities are California cities and California itself is one of the most
diverse and immigrant-friendly states in the country,” Fialho said.
“What we want to be saying is we want to value
dignity over detention.”
'We have a moral obligation': Lawmakers want the U.S. to provide attorneys for immigrant children.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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