L.A. detainees sue immigration authorities over holding conditions

[babylonsister]

L.A. detainees sue immigration authorities over holding conditions

The lawsuit claims that their rights are being violated by being held for too long in a short-term facility, denied access to counsel and subjected to 'disgusting' conditions.
By Anna Gorman
April 3, 2009


Federal authorities are violating immigrant detainees' constitutional rights by holding them for weeks at a detention facility in downtown Los Angeles that was designed as a short-term processing center, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The center is "regularly overcrowded, causing violence, safety hazards and humiliation," while detainees are denied access to attorneys and courts and are rarely provided drinking water or a change of clothing, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the National Immigration Law Center and the Paul Hastings law firm.

Detainees are held at the facility during the day and then shuttled to local jails at night and on weekends, which the suit said "effectively cuts detainees off from contact with the outside world" and deprives them of basic needs.

"They are detaining people in inhumane conditions, grossly unsanitary and disgusting conditions," said Marisol Orihuela, a staff attorney at the ACLU. "There are serious violations of due process."

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-detention3-2009apr03,0,6866381.story

[Lance_Boyle]

1. seriously

we need a detention center just on the other side of the Mexican border.

[babylonsister]

2. Your compassion is underwhelming. nt