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More Than 200 Otay Detainees Moved After ACLU Files Lawsuit

More than 200 inmates have been transferred from an immigration detention center near the border just two days after the ACLU filed a lawsuit claiming the facility is overcrowded. Among those transfer

More Than 200 Otay Detainees Moved After ACLU Files Lawsuit

More than 200 inmates have been transferred from an immigration detention center near the border just two days after the ACLU filed a lawsuit claiming the facility is overcrowded. Among those transferred is the lead plaintiff in the case. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials would not comment on the move. They say it’s common to transfer detainees to facilities where beds are available. However, as KPBS Border Reporter Amy Isackson explains, ACLU attorneys and detainees suspect immigration officials may have other motives.

Isaac Kiniti came to the United States from Kenya on a student visa ten years ago. He attended flight school for a few years. Then he got a work permit and started driving 18- wheelers. But in 2002, Kiniti took a wrong turn with the law. He was convicted on drug charges and served two years in jail. At the end of his sentence, Kiniti was going to be deported. But he claimed political asylum.

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Kiniti: I’m afraid to go back because my family was involved in local politics and government officials almost threatened and killed some of them so they fled the country. So by association, because we have the same name, I fear I might be persecuted like they were.

Kiniti’s uncle successfully claimed asylum in the United States in 2000. But Kiniti’s claim has dragged through the legal system for the last two years. During that time, he’s been held at the San Diego Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa, where he says conditions are terrible.

Kiniti and approximately 1000 detainees are held by immigration authorities at the facility while they wait for immigration hearings and rulings. Many have lived in the United States for the majority of their lives. Some have jobs. Some also have relatives and children who are U.S. citizens.

Immigration officials say the average stay is just 30 days.But the lawsuit has documented a number of cases in which people have been held as long as four years.

Kiniti says the place is so over crowded, inmates are packed like sardines into cells. He says three people share 12-foot by six-foot windowless spaces designed for two for months at a time.

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Kiniti: So as a result, I was sleeping on the floor, whereby other detainees would urinate on me when they were using the restroom at night. The there’s no space for all three of us to stand at the same time in the cell. And when the detainee on the top bunk, or the other bunk would try to use the restroom, he might step on me at night. So it was leading to confrontations.

Kiniti says the overcrowding also leads to long lines to get medical care -- if any is available. He says psychiatric patients don’t get their medicine.

Sometimes 60 detainees share one shower. Sometimes people have to eat meals on the floor because there aren’t enough tables and chairs.

Kiniti: Even the people who have come from the prison, they say the prison is way better than the detention facility.

Baht: It is a prison.

Gaori Baht is with the ACLU’s prison project and is Kiniti’s attorney.

Baht: It’s not just a prison, it’s a chronically overcrowded and unsafe prison. I mean, the facility is built as a prison. It houses U.S. Marshal’s detainees who are criminal detainees. And I have been to worse prisons. But this is among the worst.

The people who are housed at the immigration detention facility are not criminals. They violated civil immigration laws.

Baht says that’s a critical distinction.

Baht: And what this case is arguing is that they need to be treated at least as well, if not better than persons that are serving criminal sentences and are there to be punished.

What’s more, the ACLU case says the U.S. Marshal’s criminal prisoners at the facility are not crowded to the same extent as are civil immigration detainees. And the case says the facility provides less space for three immigration detainees than federal prison standards require for a convicted criminal or one who’s awaiting trial.

Kiniti says he and other detainees have told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials they’re being mistreated. But he says their grievances are often just dismissed.

Last September, he and other detainees staged a sit down strike when guards tried to move additional people into a unit that was already full. Kiniti says guards sprayed them with tear gas and pepper spray. He says detainees were put on lockdown for six days. They were fed only peanut butter and jelly.

Kiniti: And they told us if it happens again, they will even feed us worse. They said they’d take all the remaining food, grind it together and make it into a sort of cake. The Assistant Warden explained to us exactly what he’ll feed us.

In 2005, federal investigators spent 10-weeks at the detention facility examining allegations of abuse and poor treatment. They published their findings two weeks ago.

The report found three of the four most egregious allegations of physical and sexual abuse at immigration detention facilities nationwide took place at the San Diego facility.

It said detainees are not given privacy for legal calls. Many phones are directly under TV’s. The report also concluded there’s no formal process for detainees to report abuse or civil rights violations.

Meanwhile, the ACLU files its complaint in federal court last week. Just two days later, immigration officials rousted Kiniti and more than 200 other detainees out of bed at 3 a.m.

Detainees say guards put them into a holding tank so small they had to take turns standing and sitting. And there wasn’t room to lie down. Twenty hours later, they were either bused to an immigration holding center in Arizona, or a facility in downtown San Diego.

Kiniti says guards told everyone, “You have Mr. Kiniti to thank for this.”

Immigration and Customs enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack says no one was moved because of pending litigation. She says detainees are routinely moved to other facilities where beds are available. However, the Arizona and downtown facilities are short term holding centers. Detainees are allowed to stay for just 72 hours. That time expires tomorrow.

Amy Isackson, KPBS News.