Maryland’s attorney general filed a lawsuit to force federal immigration authorities to turn over records as the state investigates allegations of dangerous, inhumane and unlawful conditions at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Baltimore.
Attorney General Anthony Brown said ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have failed to comply with a subpoena seeking documentation from the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where detainees are put in “hold rooms.”
“We’ve given the administration every opportunity to comply with the law, and they have chosen not to,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said at a news conference Tuesday.
The lawsuit describes disturbing allegations from detainees. One person claimed they were suffering from renal failure and they were denied dialysis. That detainee allegedly opted to be deported in order to receive care outside the U.S.
A diabetic detainee claimed the facility denied them medication for multiple days. Another person who was wearing an adult diaper when taken into ICE custody was allegedly forced to live in their own excrement for five days, the attorney general’s office said.
A video showing men crowded into a concrete room at a Baltimore ICE detention facility has raised scrutiny among immigrant advocates. Investigative Reporter Tracee Wilkins reports.
“The conditions inside the Baltimore holding cells have been dangerous, inhumane, and unlawful — and ICE and DHS have done everything in their power to keep us from finding out just how bad they are. The agencies have stonewalled our investigation while people in their custody are denied critical medical care and forced to sleep in cold cement cells and live in their own excrement,” Brown said in a release. “We’re taking ICE and DHS to court to expose the full scope and impact of their lawless behavior.”
Brown said his office is seeking to obtain complaints filed by detainees, contracts for food services and logs of who’s coming and going from the facility.
“Detainees describe the food as dog food. They were given blankets covered in feces, lice, urine, vomit,” Brown said. “Cells built for short term detention have become something far, far worse.”
News4 reached out to ICE about the lawsuit, but we have not yet received a response.
DHS previously gave this statement about alleged conditions at the facility:
“These claims that there are subprime conditions or overcrowding are false. Illegal aliens in custody are provided food, water, blankets, and hygiene products. … It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”
Immigration attorney Victoria Slatton said she has represented dozens of clients who were processed at that facility.
“I truly believe that if more people understood how bad these facilities really are, then there would be more outcry. And so the fact that there’s an investigation at all is encouraging to me, but I won’t be satisfied until I see tangible changes,” Slatton told News4.
Brown said the lawsuit is the first step, and his office could take further legal action after receiving the documentation from ICE.
The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights filed a separate lawsuit against ICE alleging inhumane conditions at the facility. A federal judge ordered ICE to limit the number of detainees being held at the Baltimore facility in response to that lawsuit. Staff are also required to provide things like toothbrushes, soap and feminine hygiene items to detainees.
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