Amnesty International Investigates Immigration Detainee Claims of Abuses, Lack of Due Process at Port Isabel Detention Center

Representatives from Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) will visit the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, TX, on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet with Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and immigrants who have been held at the facility — some for months and years without receiving due process. The detention site gained attention in recent weeks when a number of the immigrants undertook hunger strikes to protest their treatment in the facility. AIUSA will report its findings on a press briefing call this Thursday, June 4 at 10:30 a.m. ET.The visit comes on the heels of the launch of AIUSA’s report Jailed Without Justice, which reveals that tens of thousands of people languish in U.S. immigration detention facilities every year – including a number of U.S. citizens – without receiving a hearing to determine whether their detention is warranted. In just over a decade, the number of immigrants in detention each day has tripled from 10,000 in 1996 to more than 30,000 in 2008. One of the Port Isabel detainees, after reading news coverage of the Amnesty International report online, contacted AIUSA as part of the immigrants’ effort to go public with their stories. “It is highly disturbing that immigrant detainees were driven to something as drastic as a hunger strike to make their voices heard,” said Sarnata Reynolds, AIUSA’s policy and campaign director for Refugee and Migrant Rights, and one of the delegates visiting the facility. “This is a clear indication that while the U.S. government may ignore the human rights of immigrants, the immigrants themselves refuse to be silenced under an immigration system that is in violation of international human rights law — and may in fact be in violation of U.S. standards governing the treatment of detainees.” At least nine detainees have already contacted AIUSA staff over the last several weeks to discuss details of their detention, including claims of U.S. citizenship and allegations of physical abuse at the hands of guards, as well as a widespread inability to access legal counsel and the denial of the right to a hearing.

KJ