Group files suit alleging lawyers denied access to immigrants in prison

SALEM, Oregon — A rights group filed an emergency lawsuit in federal court Friday against top officials of U.S. immigration and homeland security departments, alleging they have unconstitutionally denied lawyers access to immigrants in a prison in Oregon.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred 123 immigrants in early June to the federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon, because other holding facilities have been overloaded since the Trump administration enacted a “zero tolerance” policy in April involving people entering the U.S. illegally.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon filed the lawsuit in Portland on behalf of the detainees, who are mostly from Mexico and Central America.

The lawyers say they’ve been denied meaningful access to the detainees, many of whom escaped violence in their home countries and are seeking asylum in the U.S.

“The U.S. Constitution protects everyone who is on U.S. soil,” said Mat Dos Santos, ACLU of Oregon’s legal director. “You have fundamental rights to due process of law. You can’t just throw them in prison.”

Among the people being held in the medium-security prison is Luis Javier Sanchez Gonzalez, whose family was separated at the border when they sought asylum at a port of entry, the ACLU said.

He and his partner, Xochitl Ramos Valencia, have two children, ages one and five. Ramos Valencia has not been able to speak to Sanchez Gonzalez since they were separated, and their children are distraught since their father was taken away, the rights group said.

ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell said she was unable to comment due to the pending litigation. There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Defendants named in the lawsuit are U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen; Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE; U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and Hugh Hurwitz, acting director of the federal Bureau of Prisons, among others.

ICE said Monday that 123 detainees were in the prison, located about 30 kilometres northwest of Salem, the state capital. Bureau of Prisons pre-trial inmates who typically stay at the prison do not co-mingle with the ICE detainees.