Latest news with #AmicaCenter
CBS News
28-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Maryland leaders to visit Baltimore ICE detention facility amid allegations of "inhumane conditions"
Several Maryland leaders are scheduled to visit the George H. Fallon Federal Building in Baltimore following allegations of inhumane conditions for detainees held there by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The group includes U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and U.S. Reps. Glenn Ivey, Johnny Olzewski Jr., and Sarah Elfreth. ICE has previously denied the allegations, saying it "remains committed to enforcing immigration laws fairly, safely and humanely." The agency said it complies with federal law and agency policies, and it upholds the "well-being and dignity" of those in custody. A federal class-action lawsuit filed by the Amica Center and the National Immigration Project alleges that ICE "fails to meet basic human needs" for detainees and is violating its own standards at the Baltimore facility. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Maryland women detained by ICE at the Fallon building, after a judge ruled to suspend their deportation. Attorneys argue the two women were held in "inhumane" holding rooms for prolonged periods - one for 60 hours, and the other for 48 hours, which they allege is in violation of ICE's own policy. Immigration advocacy groups and Maryland leaders have raised concerns about conditions inside the Fallon building. In March, the Amica Center and nonprofit CASA held a rally to highlight the experiences of those detained. One CASA member said his daughter had been held in the facility for several days. "They are forced to endure meals of insufficient food, barely any water, and most appallingly, people like my daughter are being denied their vital medications they need for their health and wellbeing," the CASA member said. In April, staffers for Van Hollen and Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks visited the building. Following the visit, the two senators wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons about the reported conditions that detainees faced while in holding cells. In their letter, the senators said they learned detainees were being held longer than allowed by ICE standards and that the facility could not meet basic needs. They also cited overcrowded holding cells without beds, inadequate food service, and said there was no on-site medical staff. ICE has previously responded to the claims about conditions at its Baltimore facility, explaining that the holding rooms at the location are not held to the same standards as detention facilities. "ICE Baltimore operates a holding room, not a detention facility, and therefore is not subject to the standards outlined in the 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards," the agency said in a statement. The agency also said it complies with federal laws, and the ICE Health Service Corps is on site to provide medical services when needed. "In the event of a medical emergency, detainees are promptly transported to nearby hospitals to receive immediate and appropriate care," the agency said in a statement. "ICE remains dedicated to transparency and accountability in our operations."
CBS News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Bail for women at center of Baltimore ICE holding room lawsuit up in the air
An attempt to fast-track the release of two women in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody failed Wednesday after a Baltimore federal judge struck it down. The women are at the center of a federal class-action lawsuit against ICE holding room operations in downtown Baltimore. According to their attorneys, the women were held illegally by ICE in "inhumane" holding rooms at the George Fallon Federal Building, which is a claim ICE disputes. The motion to release, filed by The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights on Monday, will be one of several motions discussed and decided upon at a hearing scheduled for July 29. U.S. District Court Judge Julie Rubin said expediting the bail of the two plaintiffs would be "damn near impossible" given time and logistical constraints. After she made her decision, Rubin also said, "I'm not smelling exceptional circumstances from these papers." She prefaced her comment as not her official position on the matter, and she will wait to hear more at the July 29 hearing. Amelia Dagen, a staff attorney for The Amica Center, disagreed with that notion outside the courthouse. She said the plaintiffs have been receiving inadequate medical care since being in ICE custody. "They both have children and elderly parents that they are caring for, so there are exceptional circumstances that would absolutely make them eligible for release on bail," Dagen said. The two women were initially detained in the Baltimore holding rooms at the George Fallon Federal Building in May, but have since been transferred out of state. Judge Rubin has paused their deportation for as long as this case goes on. Another motion that will be discussed on July 29 is a motion for class certification, which would allow claims to be made by anyone who is currently, or in the future, detained in the holding cells. There is also a motion for a preliminary injunction on the agenda. This was filed last month and, if granted, would order ICE to strictly follow its holding cell policies. In its lawsuit, The Amica Center and the National Immigration Project (NIP) allege ICE "fails to meet basic human needs" for detainees and the agency is breaking its own rules. It also alleges detainees are held well beyond the 12 hours that ICE policy dictates, saying the plaintiffs were held for 48 and 60 hours. In court, a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice called the claims inaccurate. ICE has defended its Baltimore operations, saying it is run in full compliance with federal laws, agency policies, and upholds the "well-being and dignity" of those in custody. Dagen said the preliminary injunction is critical, as immigration enforcement continues to ramp up nationally. "ICE is setting increasingly high quotas for themselves to arrest more and more of our members of the community, our family members," Dagen said. "That will mean that there will be more and more people stuck in holding rooms like the one in Baltimore, that are not designed for long-term residential use."
CBS News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Immigration advocates ask judge to halt inhumane practices at Baltimore ICE facility
The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and the National Immigration Project have asked a judge to halt inhumane practices at a Baltimore Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. Last month, a judge ruled that two women living in Maryland who were detained by ICE will remain in the United States after a judge's ruling in federal court to suspend their deportation. The ruling was the result of a class action lawsuit filed by the Amica Center and the National Immigration Project on behalf of the two women, whose attorneys said were living in Maryland lawfully. Attorneys say facility conditions are "inhumane" The attorneys said that ICE was illegally holding the two women and that they were subjected to inhumane conditions. The women were being held in holding rooms at the George Fallon Federal Building downtown before being moved to other facilities in New Jersey and Denver, Colorado, the attorneys said. Immigrant advocacy organizations and state leaders have said that conditions inside the Baltimore federal building are of concern. In March, community members rallied outside the building where detainees were being held. Staffers for U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks (both D-Md.) also visited the ICE holding facility in downtown Baltimore in March. After their visit, Van Hollen and Alsobrooks sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd Lyons, addressing reports about the conditions detainees have experienced in the holding rooms at the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in the Baltimore Field Office. The letter included concerns about the duration that detainees were being held, the proportion of detainees to room size, lack of medical staff on site, and the absence of a food service contract.
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Ice makes record number of immigration arrests on single day
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) made a record high number of arrests on Tuesday, detaining more than 2,200 people as Donald Trump's hardline immigration policy continues. NBC News reported that the figure represents the most people ever arrested by Ice in a single day. Hundreds of the people arrested were enrolled in Ice's alternative to detention program, under which migrants who are awaiting legal status are given background checks to determine they are not a safety risk, then tracked by the government using ankle monitors or smartphone apps. The record total comes after senior officials over the weekend instructed rank-and-file Ice officers to arrest more people, even without warrants. In May, the White House demanded that Ice arrest 3,000 people a day. Some of the arrests 'appear to be the result of a new Ice tactic', NBC News reported, in which Ice officials arrest migrants who are enrolled in the alternative to detention program when they arrive at pre-scheduled check-in meetings at Ice offices. '[With] mass arresting of people on alternatives to detention or at their Ice check-ins or at immigration court hearings, the dragnet is so wide that there's no possible valid argument that could be made that these individuals are all dangerous,' Atenas Burrola Estrada, an attorney with the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, told NBC News. The Guardian reported that on Saturday senior Ice officials urged officers to 'turn the creative knob up to 11' when it comes to enforcement, including by arresting undocumented people whom officials may happen to encounter – here termed 'collaterals' – while serving arrest warrants for others. In a meeting on 21 May, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, and Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, ordered Ice leaders to dramatically increase the number of arrests. Miller and Noem told Ice officials to arrest 3,000 people a day – more than a million a year. The scramble to arrest as many people as possible has caused chaos, as citizens have been wrongfully detained and detention centers have become overcrowded. Last week, a fourth grader was detained by Ice officials and separated from his father during a scheduled immigration hearing in Houston, Texas. KTLA5 reported that Martir Garcia Lara, a student at Torrance elementary in south California, attended the hearing with his father on 29 May. His teachers alerted the school's parent-teacher association (PTA), which is lobbying for Lara to be released. 'He's alone and he's not able to return home,' said Jasmin King, the president of the PTA. 'We have not received any information on why they were detained. All we know is that Martir is just a fourth grader who's by himself, without his dad, without a parent, and just in a place that he probably doesn't know, so we can only imagine what he might be feeling.'
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Maryland advocates argue "self-deport" posters attack immigrants' rights
Posters being put up in immigration courts in Maryland and across the country encouraging immigrants to "self-deport" have advocates calling it an attack on immigrants' right to due process. The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, an immigrant legal services nonprofit with offices in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., says it's been hearing about the poster from clients since April. Amica's main concern is that the poster doesn't fully explain the consequences that could ultimately prompt people to leave the country forever. Concern for immigrants' legal rights Titled, "A Warning to Self-Deport," the top half of the post goes over the benefits of self-deportation, saying it's safe and there will be future opportunities for returning with legal status. The bottom half of the poster goes over consequences for staying, which include immediate deportation, fines and penalties, and possible imprisonment. CBS News Baltimore Michael Lukens, executive director for Amica, said the poster has been put up in immigration courts and detention facilities. He also said the poster doesn't have credible legal advice. "It talks about taking a self-deport, well, that's not really a thing," Lukens said. "If someone is in front of a judge, they have the right to fight their case. A person can ask for something called involuntary departure to the judge." Lukens said that the poster doesn't get into all of the negative impacts someone could run into if they take this option, which includes being barred from returning to the country and fighting their case in court. "There's a reason we have courts and there's a reason we have attorneys to help people," Lukens said. We don't use posters to try and get people to give up their legal rights," he said. WJZ reached out to the Executive Office for Immigration Review about the poster and concerns raised by Lukens. EOIR conducts removal proceedings in immigration courts. A press secretary for EOIR declined to comment via email. Migrants take Trump's offer to self-deport Meanwhile, the first group of undocumented migrants who took President Donald Trump's $1,000 offer to self-deport arrived in Honduras and Colombia on Monday. In total, 64 migrants took the voluntary charter flight from Houston, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. One of those migrants, 22-year-old Wilson Ariel Saenz, told reporters after arriving in Honduras that he took the offer because things are "ugly" in the U.S. The president said he's open to bringing certain undocumented migrants back into the country. "We're going to work with them so that maybe someday, with a little work, they can come back in if they're good people," Trump said. "If they're the kind of people that we want in our company." This all comes as the government has cut funding for immigrant legal support services, including a program Amica ran to provide legal support in detention centers. Lukens said Amica will continue to help as much as it can. "Is it efficient? No. Is it as effective? No. Are we doing it unfunded? Yes," Lukens said.
