Bay Area Lawmaker Inspects ICE Detention Facility in SF After Reports of Mistreatment

A Bay Area congressperson said he remains deeply concerned over possible mistreatment of detained immigrants after a visit to an immigration holding facility in San Francisco on Monday.

Rep. Mike Thompson, a North Bay Democrat, said he scheduled the visit to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco after getting reports that detainees were mistreated there.

His inspection comes on the heels of a class action lawsuit, filed last week, that alleged conditions at the facility are so inhumane they violate the U.S. Constitution. The suit accused ICE of turning 12-hour holding cells in the downtown office building into a jail where people are detained for days with no beds, hygiene or medical care.

Thompson said he did not observe egregious conditions on Monday, but he noted that his visit was planned in advance. It was not a response to the lawsuit.

“While the conditions shown to me appeared orderly and maintained, leadership at the facility was given prior notice of my visit,” he told KQED in a statement. “I will continue to closely monitor reports of undue detainments and improper conditions at the immigration facilities near our community.”

Under federal law, members of Congress have the right to conduct inspections of immigration detention facilities without providing advance notice. However, in recent months, ICE has repeatedly blocked members of Congress from entering detention facilities. In July, a dozen lawmakers who were denied access sued the Trump administration.

Until recently, the sixth-floor cells at the Sansome Street ICE office were intended for temporary custody while immigrants awaited transfer or processing for release, according to the lawsuit. But in January, ICE rescinded a national policy that limited the use of such temporary “hold rooms” to a maximum of 12 hours.

Since then, people arrested at Northern California immigration courts, at ICE check-in appointments and elsewhere have been locked up overnight — some as long as six days — and have nowhere to sleep but a metal bench or the floor, with the lights on around the clock, the suit alleged. They must share a toilet with no privacy, have nowhere to bathe and are denied soap and toothpaste, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of several people who were held there.

“Defendants do not conduct a medical intake or use a medical questionnaire to identify the needs of people being detained in the hold rooms,” the suit said. “Defendants routinely fail to provide for the proper administration of prescription medications, and they do not allow detained people to make arrangements to access their prescription medications or keep medication with them.”

ICE spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied the charges in a statement to KQED.

“Any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false,” she wrote. “In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members. It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody.”

The lawsuit, which also challenged ICE’s recent practice of arresting people at immigration courthouses, was brought by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central American Resource Center of San Francisco and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, as well as attorneys with the firm Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass.

In her statement, ICE’s McLaughlin wrote: “The ACLU should just change its name. It’s clear they only care about illegal aliens—not Americans.”

Thompson said he would continue to work with immigrant service organizations “to ensure members of our immigrant community know their rights and are treated with dignity.”

He urged anyone in his 4th Congressional District who has faced inhumane treatment in ICE custody to contact his office.