A lawsuit filed on behalf of four plaintiffs accuses U.S. immigration authorities of disregarding indications of unsanitary and unsafe conditions at a migrant detention center in New Mexico. The suit says the actions were deliberate in order to ensure the facility would remain open, which is a violation of federal standards.
A coalition on advocates for migrant rights last week announced the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque regarding oversight of the Torrance County Detention Facility in the rural town of Estancia. The detention facility is contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and has come under repeated criticism for its poor living conditions for people seeking asylum in the U.S.
The detention center in the rural town of Estancia, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the Mexico border, is contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to accommodate at least 505 adult male migrants at any time, though actual populations fluctuate.
Advocates have repeatedly alleged in recent years that the the facility has inadequate living conditions and there is limited access to legal counsel for asylum-seekers who cycle through. They have urged ICE to end its contract with a private detention operator, while calling on state lawmakers to ban local government contracts for migrant detention.
The detention center failed a performance evaluation in 2021, and the lawsuit alleges that ICE scrambled to avoid documentation of a second consecutive failure that might discontinue federal funding by endorsing a “deeply flawed, lax inspection” by an independent contractor.
The lawsuit says the agency disregarded contradictory findings by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General and a contracting officer at ICE that suggested continued unhealthy conditions and staff shortages.
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that the agency does not comment on litigation. Last year Chief of Staff Jason Houser said ICE would continuously monitor the facility and noted that it stopped using the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama when expectations there were not met.