Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 9

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC FROM THE FRONT PAGE FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 201 1 A9 onai mi rant lockups criticized. ACLU report assails living conditions, policies at detention center but he usually can secure bond for them. But then, the problem becomes having a family with an income high enough to af-ford it, he said. Only about 10 percent of illegal detainees have lawyers because they are not granted the right to an attorney, according to the ACLU report. Some impoverished detainees can seek free legal advice from the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a non-profit that offers assistance to adults and children detained by ICE.

"The system still needs some serious reformations, such as coming up with better alternatives to detaining," Goldman said. "We're still seeing many individuals who should be out in the community but are being held, and it's costing billions of dollars for our government to house them." "The Pinal County Sheriff's Office is committed to the safety, health and welfare of everyone committed to our facility," Kimble said. reforms, we're continuing to hear the same serious types of complaints we heard not just two years ago but even five years ago." Maurice Goldman, a Tucson-based attorney who specializes in immigration law, said he has witnessed little change regarding consistency among detention centers and accessibility to clients. He has no problem visiting clients at the four centers that are not run by the county. But when he needs to contact a Pinal County Adult Detention Center client, he must give 24 hours' notice and has to do business divided by a fiberglass wall.

The law requires that illegal immigrants should be detained while awaiting trial if they run a high risk of fleeing or pose a danger to the community. Goldman has represented clients who have posed little danger such as a man caught riding a bike at night without a light By Caitlin McGlade The Arizona Republic The American Civil Liberties Union has released a report decrying living conditions and policies for immigrants held at detention centers in Pinal County. The ACLU is urging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end its contract with the Pinal County Adult Detention Center, citing excessive detention time, inhumane conditions and sparse legal protection for detainees. The 36-page report documents more than 100 interviews with immigrants behind bars, many of whom have claimed they were held for years without any contact with family and have subsequently developed psychological illnesses.

While awaiting trial proceedings, detainees in Pinal County also complained of no outdoor recreation. ICE officials said that the report publishes "unverified allegations" and that the ACLU did not offer officials the opportunity to respond to the claims, according to a written statement provided by Vincent Pi-card, spokesman for the Phoenix ICE office. "The significant acts of abuse alleged in this report have yet to be formally reported to ICE, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General or any other law-enforcement agency," the ICE statement said. Officials will investigate the claims, the statement said. The Adult Detention Center has had a contract with ICE since 2006.

Its conditions are considered the worst of the five centers investigated for the report, said Victoria Lopez, an ACLU attorney who authored the report. All five immigrant-detention centers are in Pinal County, but the other four are not funded by the county. James Kimble, chief deputy of detention services for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said the facility averages 1,150 inmates and there were 391 illegal immigrants currently being housed who had been sent from ICE. He said the average detention for an illegal immigrant at the facility is 28 days. He disputed the report's claim that there was no outdoor recreation facility at the detention center.

Kimble said an outdoor facility measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet wide with 11-foot-high walls surrounded by a 12-foot-high chain link fence was built in 2006. The ACLU report took two years to compile and collected hundreds of grievances. "This isn't something that just came up," Lopez said. "Many of these problems have been persistent over the course of a number of years. Two years now after detention m- mm $300 OFF LIFT CHAIRS AAMCARE.COM ELBCTROPEDIC' 'IX fv BEDS M-Sat IM'Sun 12-4 Exp.

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"While (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) does not systemically track the number of sexual assaults in detention facilities across the country, these and other reported cases very likely represent only a fraction of the actual cases of sexual abuse of immigrants in detention," Lopez wrote. In April of this year, the Heartland Alliance National Immigration Justice Center, an advocacy group in Chicago, filed a civil-rights complaint with the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 13 more immigrants. Catalan, 27, is not named in that complaint. She filed a separate complaint in V8 Auto AC PWPDL Chrome Wheels More G10640 those in our custody and to providing the highest-quality medical and mental-health care available." Immigrants are often held in detention centers while awaiting hearings in immigration courts to determine whether they will be removed from the country or allowed to stay. In recent years, the number of immigrants detained by ICE has soared as part of efforts by Homeland Security to crack down on immigration violators.

Through April 4 of this fiscal year, the average number of immigrants being detained daily by ICE was 33,390, up from 19,718 in 2005, according to Homeland Security statistics. ICE uses more than 300 local and state jails and contracts with seven private facilities to house immigration detainees. In addition, it runs eight detention facilities of its own. The agency deported 392,862 people in the past fiscal year, up from 291,060 in fiscal 2007, according to Homeland Security. Zurnamer said abuse of LGBT people is a problem in criminal jails and prisons, as well.

Although laws protecting them from abuse also apply to immigration detention facilities, LGBT detainees are more vulnerable to abuse because, unlike people charged with crimes, they are not legally entitled to court-appointed lawyers who can advocate on their behalf. As a result, their complaints are often ignored, or they are deported before they can file a complaint, Zurnamer said. "It's not whether (abuse) happens more or less (in immigration detention)," Zurnamer said. "It's that there is less accountability if it does happen." MSRP $29,335 Liberty GMC Discount Manuf Rebate $4,505 V8 Auto AC PWPDL Chrome Wheels G10598 MSRP $31,560 Liberty GMC Discount Manuf Rebate $4,505 One punclied pie in the GREEN TAG SALE 2007 FORD TAURUS SE Low Miles, Excellent Condition, V6. G1Q825A $10,991 2002 HARLEY DAVIDSON FDXWG3, Blue, Spec Edition, Lots Of Chrome, 1 Owner, 9K Mi.

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One was kicking me. They tried to cut off my hair with a razor, but I grabbed the razor with my hand and wouldn't let go." Rejected by family Catalan came to the U.S. illegally in 1996 when she was 13 to live with her mother and stepfather in Santa Ana, Calif. Around MSRP $25,310 Liberty GMC Discount RAMON CATALAN Immigration detainee G10862 6spd Auto '-T Alloys PWPDL ps i V-if aa: MSRP Liberty GMC Discount Privacy Glass More G1 0767 Manuf Rebate HiilMIIWiHIJ 5.3ltr 6spd Auto Dual AC HD Tow bif fl Chrome Grill age 15, Catalan wanted to begin living as a woman but was rejected by her stepfather, so she moved out and began living on the street. In 2007, she moved to Arizona.

A year later, she was arrested by Phoenix police for prostitution. After serving a 30-day jail sentence, she said, she was turned over to ICE because she was in the country illegally. Catalan was detained by ICE from October 2008 to April 2009, according to her complaint. Before her detention, Catalan was taking steps to transition from male to female by taking hormone injections, growing her hair and plucking her eyebrows, the complaint says. The complaint says she was awaiting an asylum hearing in immigration court when she was attacked at the Pinal County jail.

The jail houses immigration detainees under a contract with ICE. Medical records released on Catalan's behalf by Regina Jefferies, a Phoenix immigration lawyer, show Catalan was treated at Casa Grande Medical Center for cuts, bruises, a facial-bone fracture and a concussion. "One punched me in the face. One was kicking me," Catalan said in an interview. "They tried to cut off my hair with a razor, but I grabbed the razor with my hand and wouldn't let go." Catalan said the men who beat her threatened to find her and kill her if she reported the assault.

Tim Gaffney, a spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, provided copies of jail records showing that three detainees were disciplined and several others removed from the housing unit where the assault took place. An immigration judge denied Catalan's request for asylum but ordered that she not be deported out of concern she could be persecuted in Mexico for being transgender, Jefferies said. Catalan is currently appealing the asylum ruling. More than two years later, Catalan said she still suffers from the beating. She said her office "takes these matters very seriously." The National Immigration Justice Center complaint alleges that LGBT immigrants have suffered "systemic and severe abuses" while being held at facilities in Arizona and eight other states run by Homeland Security, including the facilities Florence and Eloy.

The reputed abuses include sexual assault, denial of adequate medical care, including HIV drugs and hormone therapy, discrimination, and an ineffective process for filing complaints, the complaint says. It also alleges that one of the 13 immigrants was segregated for 14 months in Florence. The immigrant, a transgender man living as a woman, said she was told she was isolated for her protection. The ACLU report echoed many of the same concerns. The complaint asks the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in Washington, D.C., to investigate the complaints and implement a new policy to address any violations.

The ACLU report also calls for new policies and practices. "These abuses are happening across the country. And this is really just the tip of the iceberg," said Jane Zurnamer, associate director of policy at the National Immigration Justice Center. ICE, the Homeland Security agency that oversees detention and removal of immigration violators, is also reviewing the complaints, said Vincent Picard, an ICE spokesman in Phoenix. "U.S.

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