The Homeland Security Department's internal watchdog says rotting food, moldy and dilapidated bathrooms, and questionable agency practices at immigration detention facilities may violate detainees' rights.
The Office of Inspector General made unannounced visits to four facilities in California, Louisiana, Colorado and New Jersey between May and November of last year, according to a report published Thursday. The facilities together house about 5,000 detainees.
In a detention facility in Adelanto (San Bernardino County), inspectors found that detainees were given inadequate medical care and that were segregated in overly restrictive ways, the report said. Nooses were also found in some cells.
The report comes as the Trump administration is managing a worsening problem at the U.S.-Mexico border, where the number of Central American migrants is increasing. While most are families who cannot be easily returned to their home countries, the number of single adults is also on the rise, and immigration officials are detaining a growing number of them — about 52,000 to date — but are funded for only 45,000. The administration has asked for $4.5 billion more for additional bed space.
Last month, Border Patrol agents made 132,887 apprehensions, topping 100,000 for the first time since April 2007 and setting a record with 84,542 adults and children apprehended. An additional 11,507 were children traveling alone, and 36,838 were single adults.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they are working to ensure all facilities comply with standards. They say they have already trained food service staff on food safety and have extensively cleaned and renovated housing units. Their response also included photos of cleaned showers and bathrooms.
"The safety, rights and health of detainees in ICE's care are paramount," the agency's chief financial officer, Stephen Roncone, wrote to the inspector general's office. "ICE has made substantial progress to address the findings and recommendation in the OIG's draft report."
Holding single adults is an administration priority; officials say detention is one of the few consequences that can be applied to those crossing illegally. But two facilities took detainees out of the general population to special units as punishment before they should have, three wrongly put detainees in restraints and one facility strip-searched detainees who were to be segregated, the watchdog found.
In a facility in Essex, New Jersey, inspectors found detainees lacked toiletries and were given uniforms that didn't fit.
At a facility in Aurora, Colorado, detainees were not allowed visits from friends or families, even though there was room for them to do so. Facility managers said they were concerned about drugs or weapons being smuggled, but they acknowledged that visits should be considered.
Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado, said the report confirmed what she had suspected about treatment there.
"We need to take a hard look at ICE's use of these private prisons and, at the very least, make clear to the agency that outsourcing its responsibility to physically hold these detainees does not absolve it of its obligation to properly care for them," she wrote.
There have been reports of poor medical care and dangerous conditions at ICE facilities for years.
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