Latest news with #CharlesSiringi
The Independent
23-05-2025
- The Independent
Private security at ICE jail in Texas accused of choking a handcuffed detainee
A private security officer stands accused of putting his hands around a handcuffed detainee's neck and slamming him against walls at an immigrant detention center in Conroe, Texas. The officer, Charles Siringi, was criminally charged last week. The detainee was taken to the medical unit at the Montgomery Processing Center. The 66-year-old Siringi was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas with deprivation of rights while acting under the government's authority, resulting in bodily injury, The Washington Post noted. On Tuesday, Siringi posted $10,000 bail. The company that employed Siringi, the GEO Group, operates the detention center. The firm told The Post that Siringi no longer worked for the group. Following an internal review, the company referred the incident to Immigration and Customs Enforcement 's Office of Professional Responsibility. The Independent has contacted ICE for comment. 'We are committed to respecting the human rights and dignity of all individuals in our care, and we have a zero-tolerance policy with respect to staff misconduct,' the GEO Group told The Post. The detainee claimed that Siringi handcuffed him outside his housing unit and took him into a small room alongside other officers, according to the criminal complaint. In the room, Siringi is alleged to have told the officers, 'You better get him before I do.' The complaint added that Siringi subsequently grabbed the detainee by the neck and slammed his face into a wall. As the detainee turned around, Siringi is alleged to have put enough force on his throat that he 'tucked his chin down to his chest because he was gasping for air.' The detainee said Siringi 'did not remove his hands from his throat' and 'used the choke hold to move him across the room and slam him into the wall near the doorway,' court documents state. One of the two officers in the room, Elbert Griffin, backed up the detainee's version of events and took him to the medical unit for treatment. 'Griffin stated he did not believe it was an appropriate use of force, nor did he believe [the detainee] had been resisting in any manner,' the complaint notes. The Post noted that experts said the incident was a rare moment when an officer at a detention facility was being held criminally accountable for alleged abuse. It's more common for detainees to file civil lawsuits. American Civil Liberties Union 's National Prison Project senior staff attorney Eunice Hyunhye Cho told the paper that detainees don't have much power to reveal abuses. 'The power dynamic is so significant that people are either afraid to come forth [or] they are not believed when they raise complaints about abusive treatment,' she told The Post. 'And facilities have all sorts of incentives to keep those types of incidents under wraps.' A spokesperson for the nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants, Jeff Migliozzi, told the outlet that the allegations of abuse against Siringi were 'unfortunately characteristic' of similar altercations. 'A lot of people don't realize how common that actually is,' he said. 'But again, in the vast majority of those cases, nothing results, in terms of an oversight process or some sort of lawsuit or investigation.'
Washington Post
23-05-2025
- Washington Post
Immigrant-detention officer charged with choking handcuffed migrant
A private security officer at an immigrant detention center in Texas was criminally charged last week with choking a handcuffed detainee, who was later transported to the facility's medical unit. Charles Siringi is accused of putting his hands around the detainee's neck and throat and slamming him against walls March 31 in Conroe, Texas, according to a criminal complaint. Siringi, 66, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas with deprivation of rights while acting under the government's authority, resulting in bodily injury. He posted a $10,000 bail Tuesday. Siringi's attorney did not respond to requests for comment on the incident, which took place at Montgomery Processing Center. His company, GEO Group, which runs the detention center, said it no longer employed Siringi as of April 29 and that it referred the matter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Professional Responsibility after an internal review. 'We are committed to respecting the human rights and dignity of all individuals in our care, and we have a zero-tolerance policy with respect to staff misconduct,' the company said in a statement. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The charges represent a rare instance of officers at detention facilities being held criminally accountable for allegedly abusive behavior, immigration experts told The Washington Post. More often, they said, detainees file civil lawsuits — often with help from advocacy organizations — to allege wrongdoing. Eunice Hyunhye Cho, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, said immigrants who are detained have little power to expose abuse. 'The power dynamic is so significant that people are either afraid to come forth [or] they are not believed when they raise complaints about abusive treatment,' she said. 'And facilities have all sorts of incentives to keep those types of incidents under wraps.' In Siringi's case, the detainee alleged that the officer handcuffed him outside his housing unit and brought him into a small room with other officers, the criminal complaint says. Inside, Siringi allegedly told the officers, 'You better get him before I do,' referring to the detainee. Siringi then grabbed the detainee by the neck and slammed him face-first into the wall, the complaint says. When the detainee turned around, Siringi allegedly applied enough force to his throat that he 'tucked his chin down to his chest because he was gasping for air.' The detainee later said that Siringi 'did not remove his hands from his throat' and instead 'used the choke hold to move him across the room and slam him into the wall near the doorway,' according to court documents. Elbert Griffin, one of two officers who was in the room, corroborated the detainee's account and took him to the medical unit for treatment. 'Griffin stated he did not believe it was an appropriate use of force,' the complaint says, 'nor did he believe [the detainee] had been resisting in any manner.' Jeff Migliozzi, a spokesman for the nonprofit organization Freedom for Immigrants, said Siringi's alleged misuse of force was 'unfortunately characteristic' of similar incidents the group has tracked in the past. 'A lot of people don't realize how common that actually is,' Migliozzi said. 'But again, in the vast majority of those cases, nothing results, in terms of an oversight process or some sort of lawsuit or investigation.' Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
