Posted on 07/21/2018 11:11:02 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Immigrant families detained in an Oregon prison for illegal entry by the Department of Homeland Security have been given meals that violate their religious beliefs while enduring brutal conditions, according to a court filing.
The Associated Press reports that William Teesdale, the chief investigator for the federal public defender’s office in Oregon, wrote in a court filing Friday that more than 100 detainees at a federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon, are subject to strip searches in front of other inmates, overcrowded cells, and poor heating with little clothing to wear.
Some of the detainees are from India, Nepal, Guatemala, Mexico and China, according to the court documents, which allege that Hindu refugees were offered only beef and pork meals and were forced to attempt to subsist off the scant vegetable portions.
“We are dying day by day inside here,” one detainee said, according to Teesdale.
“In the night, it gets so cold in the cell and when l was in boxers and T-shirt, I was terribly cold,” another said in a habeas corpus filing.
An ICE spokeswoman told the AP that the agency has no comment on the condition in the Sheridan facility due to pending litigation. An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union described the conditions as “chaos, confusion and massive human suffering,” in a statement.
One detainee has already attempted suicide at the facility, according to officials, and a court filing reveals that at least one other migrant at the prison is experiencing suicidal thoughts.
“I have to cry in my pillow,” one immigrant wrote in his habeas corpus brief. “I have suicidal thoughts but then I remember my family. My family is all that keeps me going.”
Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay warned the prison's warden and local ICE officials that the facility continues "to fall below the minimum standards set by our government for immigration detention and, in my view, violate the Constitution by imposing punitive detention on civil detainees," according to the AP.
The Trump administration has faced criticism for the mass detention of migrants suspected of illegal entry as asylum claims and other determinations of legal status are made. The policy is part of the administration's zero-tolerance policy for illegal entry, enacted earlier this year.
Last month, President Trump signed an executive order ending the separate detention of children and parents after facing widespread outrage over the forced separation of families.
If they want meals prepared a certain way like in their home country, they should have stayed there.
The low temps in Sheridan, Oregon, have been in the low to mid 50s.
Brrr, that’s just so cold. LOL.
I can’t wait until Trump finishes fixing the Supreme Court.
They involve...(checking around for listeners)...horseradish sauce. I can say no more...
Unbelievable, isn’t it????
“One detainee has already attempted suicide at the facility, according to officials, “
Well, that’s a fix I never thought of.
*****************
Some just can’t get anything right..... Keep trying
Our responsibility is to give them nutritious food.
That’s it.
If they want choices, they need to go back to where they had them.
Spam, jarred pigs feet and canned ham should be served. All off brands to save money.
Whatever they did that made that one detainee want to commit suicide should be done more often.
“We are dying day by day in here.”
Has even one detainee died? Even been diagnosed with any medical condition caused by their detention?
If conditions there are actually inhumane, then by all means that must be addressed. We do owe moral obligations regarding the treatment of people we detain, even if they have no right to be here.
But lets hear some objective facts from disinterested observers rather than hyperbole from the detainees and their advocates.
Don’t do the crime and you can eat whatever you want in your own country.
It’s a detention center — a prison — a jail — not Club Med. Save the boo hoo.
Next time break into a country more like your own where you can steal stuff you like.
I thought gruel was universal
Boohoo
They should have called ahead for the special menu.
Tough. Shut up and eat. Or go hungry. I do not care.
like Mamma told us kids “eat what’s in front of you or you don’t eat at all.”
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