Council and Partners File Oversight Complaint on Violations of Due Process and Inhumane Conditions at Torrance County Detention Facility

The American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), ACLU of New Mexico, Innovation Law Lab, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild filed an oversight complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's(DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and Office of the Inspector General (OIG) regarding severe violations of due process and inhumane conditions at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico.

The complaint reports violations of access to counsel, violations of language access, lack of or improper adjudication of release requests, and inhumane detention conditions. The complaint explains how these issues have disproportionately affected a group of Haitian asylum seekers who entered the United States in Del Rio, Texas and may be victims and witnesses to the severe misconduct committed by the U.S. government there. The complaint also informs the oversight agencies of improper immigration judge advisals and expedited case scheduling which fall under the purview of the Department of Justice (DOJ) but compound the due process violations committed by the Department of Homeland Security.