The Orange County Sheriff’s Department says it will examine assertions by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California that the Sheriff’s Department and federal immigration officers have prevented some immigrant detainees in county jails from accessing documents and medical records that could have helped with their asylum claims.
The ACLU of Southern California says these practices made it easier for some detainees to later be deported and unnecessarily extended the time others spent behind bars, it was reported Thursday.
Sameer Ahmed and Michael Kaufman, staff attorneys for the ACLU, detailed several complaints from former detainees in a letter sent Wednesday to Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the Orange County reported. They urged the law enforcement agencies to take steps to ensure detainees have access to documents needed to help with their immigration cases.
“These materials are necessary for the detainees to pursue their immigration cases and obtain relief from removal so they may be able to remain living in the United States with their family and friends,” the ACLU attorneys wrote. “Such denial of access… violates the (ICE) detention standards and the detainees’ constitutional rights.”
Orange County jails can house up to 958 immigration detainees at Theo Lacy and James A. Musick jails under a contract with ICE that can earn the department nearly $36 million annually.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jaimee Blashaw wrote in an email that the department’s policy “is to allow detainees access to the appropriate documents, records and information to aid in their cases, as required by law,” the Register reported.
“The assertions in the ACLU letter are a deviation from our protocols, practices and what we expect from our deputies,” Blashaw wrote. “We are looking into the claims made in the ACLU’s letter and will take action, as appropriate.
–City News Service