“THIS WEEK HAS BEEN ONE GROSS CONTAGION AFTER ANOTHER” – TWIN LAWSUITS IN NY AND NJ SHINE A LIGHT ON DEPLORABLE ICE DETENTION CONDITIONS
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. – giving you the facts and truth about this administration and the law, in plain English
NOTE: Many thanks to the anonymous person who tipped me off to today’s NJ filing ;~)
You might think the quote in the headline came from one of the advocates for the Plaintiffs in one of the pair of unaffiliated lawsuits that have been filed against ICE detention facilities in each of New York and New Jersey, but you would be wrong.
In damning evidence presented at the start of a trial last week, in a lawsuit against “26 Federal Plaza”, a government-run ICE detention facility in Manhattan, emails and messages between ICE agents and other ICE personnel were used to hoist them onto their own petard. That quote in the headline, “This week has been one gross contagion after another,” was said by Nancy Zanello, an assistant field office director for ICE. She also is quoted as saying that there were *multiple* instances of detainees needing hospital care for “cardiac and seizures”.
And she also wrote, and I quote, “And we have a guy with monkeypox.🤦🏻♀️” <-- that's a facepalm emoji included by Ms. Zenello, in case you can't make out what that is.
And one of the attorneys for the Plaintiffs told the Court that a detainee *with tuberculosis" had been held in the "jam-packed" facility for nearly a week, exposing everyone around him.
In a poignant bit of evidence, the Court was shown an email from one ICE employee to another saying "This is insane. We desperately need to get some detainees out of 26 Fed." Revealing for perhaps the first time that at least some of the ICE agents have some humanity. But, of course, they are hamstrung.
Across the Hudson in New Jersey, *just now*, the New Jersey Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against GEO Group *demanding* to be allowed access to inspect the Delaney Hall detention facility. As you may have heard in the news, GEO Group has been *refusing* to let elected representatives and state officials in to inspect the facility. Reports of poor conditions inside the facility are piling up, including that detainees inside the facility are "suffering from a lack of access to medical care and poor sanitary conditions, and that they had been denied food for over 20 hours." Meanwhile protests outside the Delaney Hall facility, over the conditions and the lack of accountability (because they are refusing to let officials inside to inspect) have led to clashes, injuries, and arrests.
Today's lawsuit by New Jersey against the GEO Group (included for Notes from the Front members) asks the Court to issue an order *ordering* "GEO to permit Plaintiff and his delegees, including the Department, full access to the facility known as Delaney Hall for purposes of inspection".
Meanwhile, across the river, in the lawsuit against 26 Federal Plaza, the opening arguments in the trial (the Plaintiff's trial brief for which is included for Notes from the Front members) were heard last week, and Judge Kaplan was *not* amused. He had issued a restraining order in August dealing with the inadequacies and deprivations at 26 Federal Plaza, and while ICE had perhaps followed the letter of the order, it was clear they were paying it, at best, lip service.
For example, in addition to the horrific conditions evidenced by the administration's own words, such as the "gross contagion" and "monkeypox" remarks, the adequacy and frequency of meals is at issue. When someone for the defense explained that detainees were given MREs (meals ready to eat) similar to what soldiers get, and "which could be heated up from their bags", Judge Kaplan retorted "What are they supposed to do to heat them? Rub two detainees together?" Many of you know that I don't ordinarily report on cases that haven't yet come to an order of some sort, but these two are a striking example of the noose continuing to tighten around the administration in an environment where increasingly judges are fed up. In the beginning of last year mores dictated judicial deference to the administration while waiting for the administration to sort things out and get on board with, well, several things: the rule of law, its obligation to follow the Constitution, and, you know, decent civility and humanity. But *now*, more than a year later, it's increasingly clear to the Courts, the judges, and the judiciary as a whole that this administration has no intention of course-correcting, and that it is up to the judges to hold them accountable, judicial deference be damned.
Judicial deference is borne of respect, and requires patience, both of which have clearly been worn thin for our judges who are dealing with the increasing legal lunacy being thrown at them.
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a comment that includes the word "lunacy". It will show me that my efforts aren't in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about lunacy! ;~)
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