Category: Uncategorized

ICE Detention Standards Violation Complaint Process

Cite as “AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 07011068 (posted Jan. 10, 2007)”

HOW DO I COMPLAIN TO AUTHORITIES ABOUT DETENTION STANDARDS VIOLATIONS AND RELATED ABUSES?

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT THAT I DO THIS?

DHS has set up a simple and straight-forward procedure for voicing complaints about detention standard violations. Following these procedures provides DHS with the opportunity to remedy the violations. It also allows for further constructive advocacy on issues which are not resolved. In addition to reporting the violations to the appropriate DHS authorities below, we hope you will send a copy of your complaint to the National Immigrant Justice Center so that advocates can track how DHS is responding to complaints.
Report Violation to Local ICE: Try to resolve any detention standards violation with your local ICE offices. Document those attempts and ICE responses even if such documentation is quite simple (e.g., copies of e-mail correspondence; notation of a phone call, message left, and whether the call was returned).

If Violations Are Unresolved At the Local Level, Report the Problem to ICE Headquarters: If the local authorities are non-responsive or fail to take appropriate action, report the problem to ICE headquarters. Such grievances should be submitted in writing or by e-mail and contain detailed information about the issue at hand and all prior attempts to solve the problem with local authorities.

Please direct these complaints to Mr. Timothy Perry, Acting Chief of the Detention Acquisition and Support Branch, ICE Office of Detention and Removal, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 801 “I” Street, Suite 980, Washington, D.C. 20536. Tel: 202.732.2912; E-mail: timothy.perry@dhs.gov.

For complaints concerning medical and mental health care, advocates should copy Captain Philip Jarres, Branch Chief of Field Operations for the United States Public Health Service, 1220 L Street NW, Suite 500, Washington DC 20005. Tel: 202.732.0100; E-mail: philip.jarres@dhs.gov.

File a complaint with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (OCRCL): Complaints on detention standards violations which are unresolved at the local level should also be filed with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Complaints should be submitted in writing or e-mail to: Department of Homeland Security, Mail Stop #0800, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Washington, DC 20528. For packages/overnight deliveries, contact the office at Tel: 202.401.1474, 202.401.0470 (Local TTY); Toll Free: 1.866.644.8360, 1.866.644.8361 (TTY); E-mail: civil.liberties@dhs.gov.

In addition, complaints that relate to abuses by ICE and other law enforcement officials; profiling on the basis of race, ethnicity, or religion; and other due process violations should be sent to OCRCL at this address as well.

Website: www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0373.shtm

After reporting the complaint to DHS, PLEASE send a copy to the National Immigrant Justice Center. This allows advocates to track the process: The National Immigrant Justice Center will keep a record of all issues brought to ICE headquarters and OCRCL. Please send a “bcc” of your e-mail correspondence, or a hard copy of any other correspondence, to Tara Magner, Director of Policy, National Immigrant Justice Center, 208 S. LaSalle Street, Suite 1818, Chicago, IL 60604. Tel: 312.660.1363; Fax: 312.660.1505; E-mail: tmagner@heartlandalliance.org.

Prepared January 2007

Forwarded to TCRR by John Wheat Gibson

Clipped from the White House Press Briefing of Feb. 13, 2007

Q I wanted to ask you, there have been some stories lately about an ICE detention facility outside of Austin, Texas, where asylum-seekers have been kept in prison-like conditions — it is a converted prison, although the bars are not kept closed, as it would be in prison. Women and children are kept in garb that is likened to prison outfits. Is the President comfortable with the idea that asylum-seekers, particularly children, are kept in conditions —
MR. SNOW: Well, as you probably know, in the past, children had been separated from their families. What we’re actually trying to do is to keep them together. We also have been concerned about making sure that they’re kept in humane and sanitary conditions and they’re clothed and fed. And all that is as you would expect. But one of the things we’re trying to do is to keep families together. When you have a large number of people in a facility like that, it does create challenges, and we’re trying to do our best with it.

Q Wouldn’t it be better to find another type of facility?

MR. SNOW: Such as?

Q Dormitory —

MR. SNOW: Sports stadium?

Q — I don’t know.

MR. SNOW: The point is, it’s difficult to find facilities, and you have to do the best with what you’ve got.

Q Thank you, Tony.

END 12:32 P.M. EST

Does the CCA Lease Expire Jan. 31?

Take a look for yourself, at agreements between Williamson County, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Imprisonment of Women and Children (forwarded by Jay J. Johnson-Castro in PDF format [400 kb]).

Bottom Line: ICE pays $2.8 million per month for up to 512 prisoners (plus $19.23 per hour for off-site guard services, $125,000 per month for medical care, with contraceptives, immunizations and off-site medical care billed at additional cost). After that, $79 per day extra per head, plus $8 for medical care. For its trouble, the county collects $1 per day per child or adult imprisoned from CCA, the company that books the amounts from ICE stated above.

In January 2006, Williamson County Commissioners approved a one-year agreement with CCA. In April 2006 they approved the prison contract with ICE “indefinitely unless terminated in writing” with 120 days notice.

Public minutes of the April 18, 2006 Commisioners Court [Agenda Item 25] announce a change in “per diem and detainees” for ICE but do not indicate that the contract length with CCA is also being changed to “indefinitely.”

For these reasons, Jay Johnson-Castro says the County’s agreement with CCA expires at the end of this month, Jan. 31, 2007.

“What I am asking is…Will the Williamson County Commission choose Chertoff and CCA over the children?” says Johnson-Castro. “Will they become local, state, national and
international heroes and choose the children over Chertoff and CCA?”
Note: “Rick” mentioned on page one is, according to a reliable source, Rick Zinsmeyer, Director of Community Supervisions and Corrections for Williamson County.

Alumni of Camp Casey (the first) will surely remember Annie and Buddy Spell who put their organizing and legal experience to work in the bar ditches of Crawford, Texas, supporting their friend (and our hero) Cindy Sheehan. So we’re sharing a press release that brings news of the Spells’ excellence in civil rights–gm

COVINGTON NAACP BRANCH WINS STATE AWARD

THREE LOCAL MEMBERS ALSO RECEIVE INDIVIDUAL HONORS

BATON ROUGE, LA The Greater Covington Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was recognized in Baton Rouge on Saturday afternoon with the “Outstanding NAACP Unit Award” by the Louisiana NAACP. The award, which acknowledges the local group’s community activism in the ongoing civil rights movement, was accepted on behalf of the membership by Branch President James A. “Gus” Davis. Davis, a decorated Viet Nam veteran and long time community activist who only recently assumed leadership of the unit, also received individual recognition by the state organization and was presented with the “Community Service Award”.

Also receiving individual honors from the state were local attorneys and branch members, Annie and Buddy Spell. Mrs. Spell, the immediate past president, received the “Emmit F. Douglas Memorial Award” in recognition of her valuable contributions to the Louisiana NAACP. She received national attention when she was elected two years ago as only the second white, female branch president in the history of the national organization. Under her leadership, the local group established itself as an activist branch both regionally and nationally for not only civil rights actions, but also within the antiwar movement.

Her husband and law partner was honored with the “M. Joy Clemmons Legal Service Award” for his assistance to the state organization in connection with various direct actions addressing criminal defendants’ right to counsel, Katrina relief, and voters’ rights over the last year.
BACKROUND ARTICLES:

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-05-24/news_feat.html

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-spell250706.htm

http://peacefile.org/wordpress/?p=232

CONTACT:

Annie Spell

(985) 264-7752 P.S. Smudge the Peace Cat is “good,” says Buddy.