U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that he had reviewed allegations of mistreatment at the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and the privately owned Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia and that he is discontinuing use of these facilities to improve health and safety standards for detainees.
"Allow me to state one foundational principle: we will not tolerate the mistreatment of individuals in civil immigration detention or substandard conditions of detention," Mayorkas told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Tae Johnson in a memo, according to the statement.
Mayorkas said the government is also ending an agreement between ICE and the Bristol County Sheriff's Office in Massachusetts under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which deputizes county officers to perform some immigration enforcement duties.
The Bristol County Sheriff's Office, which runs the C. Carlos Carreiro jail, was found to have used excessive force, including dogs, flash-bangs and pepper-ball projectiles, during a May 2020 incident in which detainees, fearing exposure to the novel coronavirus, refused to consent to COVID-19 testing, according to a report from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.
The Irwin detention center, run by private prison contractor LaSalle Corrections, is embroiled in an ongoing class action from 14 women at or formerly incarcerated there, alleging they witnessed or were subjected to hysterectomies and medical procedures without consent. Some women were ordered deported after coming forward with their stories, according to court filings.
Mayorkas said he instructed Johnson to prepare to discontinue the use of the facility "as soon as possible," while preserving evidence for the ongoing lawsuit and a related investigation by DHS' Office of the Inspector General.
Detainees and ICE personnel will be relocated as necessary, he said.
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson responded to Mayorkas' announcement in a statement decrying the decision to end ICE contracts as a "political hit job" against critics of the Biden administration.
"Shame on Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas for putting his left-wing political agenda above public safety," Hodgson said, contending the move puts his county at greater risk for crimes by unauthorized immigrants.
Hodgson's involvement in the May 2020 incident at C. Carlos Carreiro was the subject of three state and federal investigations, and Healey's report concluded in December that Hodgson and his staff had violated immigrants' civil rights during the violent altercation. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has sued the county for records related to the incident.
A March 2020 class action seeking to release ICE detainees who said they feared for their lives in unsafe and crowded conditions at the Bristol County House of Correction recently settled, with more than 140 detainees granted bail.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the lawsuit, called the cancellation of the ICE agreement with Bristol County "long overdue."
"Sheriff Hodgson has inflicted grievous harm on vulnerable immigrants in his custody for years, and we enthusiastically applaud the Biden administration's decision to put an immediate end to the abuse," said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the organization's executive director.
ICE did not reply to requests for comment.
In the DHS statement, Johnson said, "ICE will continue to ensure it has sufficient detention space to hold noncitizens as appropriate."
Mayorkas said he has instructed his staff to provide updates on the conditions, needs and quality of treatment of detainees at all of ICE's remaining facilities, which number around 200.
LaSalle Corrections did not reply to requests for comment.
Former Irwin County ICE detainees sent a letter to DHS on Thursday, thanking Mayorkas for his decision. One woman, Andrea Manrique, said that as a "victim and survivor of this horrible place," she is celebrating what she hopes is the first step toward closing and canceling contracts for all ICE detention centers.
"I ask that every act that was committed in this place of horror be paid for and justice done on behalf of every survivor and human being," Manrique said.
--Editing by Gemma Horowitz.
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