Two US legislators have asked the Judicial Committee of the Senate to celebrate an “urgent” hearing on the Trump administration's decision to hold detained migrants, many of whom seek asylum, in federal prisons.
The application, sent on Wednesday from California Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, expressed concern about the treatment of detainees, citing a letter from an unidentified prison employee who described the conditions in the federal blockade in Los Angeles and blamed “Fear of Donald Trump” for the “inhuman” situation.
“I am alarmed that the civil rights of these detainees are not being confirmed,” the employee wrote in a Two -page letter attached to the request of the senators. “They have not been accused or convicted and we are literally putting them in prison.”
A spokesman for the Padilla office said the senator had not received any response from the Judicial Committee.
A spokesman for the prison agency would confirm only that the prison office, or BOP, houses some detained migrants, but did not address any of the concerns raised in the letter and directed all the other questions to the immigration and customs application, known as ICE.
The request of the senators, and the letter of the penitentiary worker, occur in the midst of an impulse of the Trump administration to house more migrants in the problematic prison system, which is already responsible for Housing at approximately 150,000 inmates In 122 facilities.
Earl this month, a leaked copy of an agreement between Immigration officials and the interim director of the prison agency showed that several facilities have been aimed at retaining migrants, including prisons in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Miami and Leavenworth, Kan.
As the Times previously reported, the federal prison with little personal in Berlin, NH, also hopes to receive 500 detainees. In response, prison agency officials sent an email Staff in other facilities In search of volunteers from all over the country willing to work in the rural blockade of New England.
The emails sent to the prison union leaders also show that the Trump administration may be considering a plan to send immigrants to the federal prison “Violation Club” recently closed in Dublin, California.
In the midst of these changes, immigration officials first sent Several detainees to the federal prison in downtown Los Angeles In early February. Initially, as reported above, prison staff were not sure where to accommodate the detainees or the best way to keep them separated from other prisoners.
Finally, they placed men in their own unit within the installation, creating additional work for the staff, who an official with knowledge of the situation said that “had no guidance” on how to manage migrants differently from typical federal prisoners. (The official asked not to be appointed, since they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter).
Last weekend, Immigration officials sent 12 more migrants to the facilities of the center of Los Angeles. After a long -awaited ice sweep throughout the county.
The prison employee letter described this week the first arrivals at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on February 2, when ICE agents “left the buses” of the detainees. Because the detainees are not regular inmates, said the prison worker, they cannot enter the system to use the phones or contact their families.
“Employees have been told that they cannot reject them and have to leave space to house them. We have not been trained or employed for this purpose, and we do not know what these people are detained for, ”said the letter. “Bop resources are being used to transmit detainees, which is where our limited resources should go.”
The letter continued detailing problems that arose during the first Trump administration, when the detainees were sent to a federal prison in Victorville.
“There were reports of detainees who received insufficient medical attention, the employees extended and worked overtime, and instances of violence resulting from the lack of adequate personnel,” said the letter. “There were suicide threats by some detainees, several of whom allegedly exercised their legal right to seek asylum in this country.”
This time, said prison employee, there was no reason to expect anything different, since the agency continues to fight with the scarcity of personnel.
“It seems that both the fear of Donald Trump and the need for income are promoting these decisions. But the conclusion is that BOP employees were not recorded in this, ”the employee wrote. “This abuse of resources and my colleagues seems to be nothing more than political gain.”
