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San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Keep ICE out of Dublin': Hundreds protest prospect of immigrant detention centers
Hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday at a park in Dublin to oppose the possibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement reopening the nearby federal prison into an immigrant detention center. Drivers passing by the family-friendly protest at Don Biddle Community Park honked their horns in support of the demonstrators holding signs that read, 'Keep ICE out of Dublin.' There were designated art tables where children could color, and attendees could pick up screen-printed posters that read, 'Hands off our immigrant neighbors.' The protest was organized by Tsuru for Solidarity, ICE Out of Dublin Coalition, several labor unions and other organizations. Tsuru for Solidarity, a Japanese American social justice advocacy group that seeks to end detention sites, organized the rally in solidarity with immigrant communities and to protest detention centers from opening in the Bay Area, specifically the scandal-plagued former women's prison in Dublin that shuttered last year. FCI Dublin made national headlines in 2023 after incarcerated people filed a class-action lawsuit alleging rampant sexual abuse by many of the prison guards. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons closed FCI Dublin in early December, citing poor facility conditions and staffing shortages. Later that month, the bureau announced that it will pay $115 million to 103 women who were sexually abused — the largest monetary settlement in the bureau's history, according to representatives of the prisoners. Rumors of potentially reopening the site as an immigrant detention center began after ICE officials toured the facility in February. A bureau spokesperson told the Chronicle last week that 'there are no plans to reopen it.' Still, Bay Area residents have been on edge about the possibility of the prison reopening as a detention center, prompting demonstrators to take to the streets to protest. Stacy Suh, program director at Detention Watch Network and one of the speakers at Saturday's rally, told the crowd that immigrant women were targeted at FCI Dublin because of their immigration status. 'We do not want ICE in our backyard, not in Dublin, not in the Bay Area, and not anywhere,' Suh told the cheering crowd. 'Mass detention and deportation mean more and more and more Black and brown people are racially profiled because of the color of their skin,' Suh added. Marissa Seko, of the Oakland-based Family Violence Law Center, said she has worked with survivors of the prison for 15 years. The prison's conditions described by the survivors reminded Seko, a Japanese American, of the conditions her grandmother endured while she was detained at an internment camp in Arizona. Hundreds of thousands people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 during World War II. In March, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to detain Venezuelans. 'As a kid, my grandma and my great aunt told me stories about what it was like losing everything, how desolate, dusty and dirty the camp was,' Seko said. 'Supporting the survivors of FCI Dublin … reminded me of what my family endured during the internment.' 'The prison was closed for good reason and should remain closed,' she added. Sharon Osterweil of Oakland said she attended the rally because, as someone of Jewish descent, 'we have a responsibility to stand up whenever any group is facing detention, concentration camps, kidnappings the way that we're seeing right now.' 'This is the time when elected officials need to stand up and actually represent people who elected them, which means not allowing ICE to expand, let alone keep operating the way they are,' she said.
USA Today
18-06-2025
- USA Today
California fugitive captured three decades after escaping FCI Dublin
A fugitive who fled a California prison over three decades ago was arrested by the U.S. Marshals earlier this month, authorities announced, about 150 miles away from where he escaped. Ronald Keith Harvey, 79, was captured in Nevada City, California, by the U.S. Federal Marshal Fugitive Apprehension Team on June 12, according to a Facebook post by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office and county booking records. Harvey escaped from the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, on Jan. 21, 1994, according to KTVU. "There are some people who are better than others at absconding justice and just going on the run," Deputy U.S. Marshal Cruz Moya told KGO-TV. Moya, who has been in charge of Harvey's case since 2024, told SF Gate that the federal marshals found Harvey following a data sweep that led to an address associated with the escapee in Nevada City. USA TODAY reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service for a statement on June 17 and did not receive an immediate response. Escapee had been serving time for marijuana operation Moya told KTVU that Harvey was serving a 60-month sentence at FCI Dublin for manufacturing marijuana plants. "He wasn't cultivating a small amount. He was arrested with 600-plus plants and firearms. So, it was a pretty big operation that he was running," Moya said to KGO. Marshals told KGO-TV that Harvey has about four years left on his original sentence. FCI Dublin was the prison where Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin served their sentences related to the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal. FCI Dublin closed in 2024 following an Associated Press report on alleged sexual abuse at the prison.
San Francisco Chronicle
12-06-2025
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
I helped care for FCI Dublin victims. Trump's plan to reopen the prison for ICE is horrifying
As the child of Japanese Americans who were detained for years by the U.S. government, I have witnessed the violent suppression of protests in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement with shock and anger. ICE's brutal tactics, separation of families and demonizing rhetoric are reflective of a system that is fundamentally flawed and inhumane. That's why people in California have been organizing for decades to get ICE out of our communities — and are currently filling the streets in protest. Here in the Bay Area, there's one disturbing Trump administration plan in particular worth fighting: making sure the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin — a former Bureau of Prisons facility — does not reopen as an ICE detention center. In April of 2024, FCI Dublin closed amidst rampant abuse. From 2019 to 2021, at least eight employees at the prison, including the former warden and chaplain, were charged with sexual misconduct. Seven of the employees were found guilty and an eighth will go to trial this fall. In many instances, noncitizens incarcerated at the prison were specifically targeted for abuse by staff, who threatened to turn them over to ICE or made false promises that they could help them stay in the United States in exchange for sexual acts. Survivors also faced medical neglect and retaliation, and reported inhumane and unsafe physical conditions at the facility, and unsound infrastructure. As an emergency physician at Stanford Tri-Valley Medical Center, the nearest medical center to the Dublin prison when it was in operation, I was part of the health care team that cared for these women. I continue to be horrified by what survivors endured at the prison. Public testimony of the brave survivors includes that of Andrea Reyes, who said that former correctional officer Ross Klinger used her mental health files to exploit her emotions and commit sexual violence against her. Another woman identified as A.Y. testified that she woke one morning with an officer on top of her, removing her clothes. When she reported the abuse, she said officers retaliated against her by withholding clothes, hygiene products and other important items. Their pain — and that of other brave women — echoes in the walls of FCI Dublin. Beyond the facility's legacy of abuse, its crumbling physical structure is unsafe for human habitation — including severe mold and asbestos problems. And now, just a year later, the Trump administration is proposing to reopen the Dublin prison as an ICE detention center, part of its cruel mass detention and deportation agenda. As a physician and the child of teenagers who were unjustly incarcerated, I stand firmly opposed to the conversion of the Dublin prison for incarcerating immigrants. In 1942, the U.S. government declared my parents, then teenagers, a threat to national security. President Franklin D Roosevelt invoked the Alien Enemies Act to imprison and deport thousands of Japanese immigrants living in the U.S. Roosevelt enacted Executive Order 9066, which led to the indefinite detention of about 120,000 Japanese Americans, many of whom lost homes, farms and small businesses. They were ordered to leave their homes in San Francisco and were housed in horse stables in Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, where they had to muck out stalls to improvise living quarters. Later, they were loaded onto trains headed to the middle of the desert in Topaz, Utah, where hastily built dormitories provided neither privacy nor shelter from blinding dust storms. My parents survived these prison camps — but their experience was not a relic of history; it's an injustice that feels all too familiar today. With 50,000 people behind bars in ICE custody nationwide, the detention system is fundamentally inhumane. Immigrants can be locked up in ICE detention regardless of their immigration status. Meanwhile, citizens too can become targets based on what they look like, where they come from, and where they work. These are our neighbors, friends, and co-workers — integral to the Bay Area community. The Trump administration wants to increase the number of people in detention to over 120,000, roughly the number of Japanese Americans incarcerated in detention camps during World War II. ICE's interest in reopening the notorious prison disregards the suffering of its survivors, local community members who have made their opposition to the facility clear and elected officials who have demanded its permanent closure. There is currently no immigration detention center in Northern California because people across the region successfully joined together to shut down previous facilities and ICE contracts. Furthermore, given the history of inadequate medical care administered by the private prison industry, our local community in the Bay Area would be deeply impacted by the reopening of the Dublin prison. I expect to see an influx of people sent to our medical center — even as our emergency department wait times have exponentially expanded over the past several years. This will be a breeding ground for sickness and disease, and it will overrun our fragile and already overstretched health care system. This moment demands that everyone in the Bay Area unite: medical professionals, business owners and others need to demand that the Dublin prison permanently close and denounce the targeting, detention and deportation of our community members. We must follow the bravery of FCI Dublin survivors. Lives are at stake.
CBS News
28-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Protest planned at notorious former Dublin prison over possible ICE plan to use as immigrant detention center
A protest was planned this weekend at a former Dublin women's federal prison over a possible plan by the Trump administration to house immigration detainees at the facility. The protest was scheduled for Saturday at the former Federal Correctional Institution Dublin from noon to 2 p.m., organized by several activist groups. While the prison is closed, there are still about 100 people working at the facility, and the union that represents them confirmed that officials with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement toured the facility earlier this month. The Federal Bureau of Prisons closed FCI Dublin last year following years of rampant sexual abuse of female inmates. Since 2021, at least eight employees have been charged with sexually abusing inmates at the prison which became known as the "rape club." Five employees pleaded guilty, and two were convicted at trial, including former warden Ray Garcia. The eighth employee's trial was pending. In December, the BOP agreed to pay nearly $116 million to resolve lawsuits brought by more than 100 women who say they were abused or mistreated at the prison. The protest will come on the same week that Bay Area Representatives Mark DeSaulnier (D-Walnut Creek) and Zoe Lofgren (D- San Jose) sent a letter voicing their opposition to reopening the prison. The letter, addressed to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons William Lothrop, and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Caleb Vitello - outlined "the unsafe and hazardous conditions at the facility that necessitated its closure just months ago" as well as its "history of abuse of incarcerated immigrants" and "insufficient infrastructure for this population." Also this week, both of California's U.S. senators - Democrats Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff - spoke out against plans to house immigrant detainees at BOP facilities. The senators were joined by Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi denouncing plans by the BOP to detain immigrants as part of President Trump's mass deportation plan. The letter from the senators questioned the bureau's "lack of answers on how to safely manage interactions between civil immigration detainees and incarcerated criminals, how BOP staff will receive sufficient training and resources to manage the civil immigrant detainee population, and whether BOP facilities could meet basic immigration detention standards." The Trump administration hasn't publicly announced any move to house immigrant detainees in FCI Dublin. An ICE spokesperson didn't directly address FCI Dublin but didn't deny ICE is considering using the Dublin facility. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's enhanced enforcement operations and routine daily operations have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity. While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements," the spokesperson said.
Boston Globe
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Judge OKs prison abuse settlement, rejecting Trump administration's push to rewrite protections
It also includes pathways to early release and home confinement, and requires the Bureau of Prisons to 'issue a formal, public acknowledgement to victims of staff sexual abuse at FCI Dublin.' Some women who alleged abuse at Dublin say they have since been the victims of similar misconduct at other federal prisons. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Without the consent decree and the oversight that it calls for, there's no safety or protection for our class members,' former Dublin inmate Kendra Drysdale said. Advertisement FCI Dublin, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland, has been sitting idle since the Bureau of Prisons cleared out inmates last April and announced its permanent closure last December. It is now being looked at for use as a possible immigration detention facility. The judge rejected the Bureau of Prisons' request to renegotiate the agreement — which had been on the table since December — to remove provisions pertaining to transgender and non-citizen inmates. Government lawyer Madison Mattioli argued they were 'inconsistent with the new administration's priorities.' Under the consent decree, the Bureau of Prisons must allow covered inmates to retain gender-affirming clothing and accommodations and must not deny early release solely on the basis of immigration status or a detainer. 'You don't get two bites at the apple,' Gonzalez Rogers said at a hearing held by Zoom and attended by several ex-FCI Dublin inmates. 'There is always an opportunity to want more after a negotiated settlement. And that's why we get in writing and that's why we get it signed, so that you cannot go back.' Advertisement The consent decree will run for at least two years. It is set to go into effect March 31. Gonzalez Rogers agreed to the delay so the Bureau of Prisons can fill key several vacancies, including replacing an administrator who retired this month after serving as a liaison to the monitor, Wendy Still. A preliminary injunction that provides incarcerated women with some protections runs through March, the judge said. An AP investigation found a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had persisted for years at FCI Dublin, which became known among staff and inmates as the 'rape club.' Since 2021, at least eight employees have been charged with sexually abusing inmates. Five have pleaded guilty. Two were convicted at trial, including former warden Ray Garcia. Another case is set to go to trial next month. Lawyers for ex-Dublin inmates and the Bureau of Prisons filed a proposed consent decree in December, at the end of the Biden administration, after months of negotiations to settle a class-action lawsuit that sought to change the agency's treatment of women and abuse claims. Separately, the government agreed in December to pay nearly $116 million to resolve lawsuits brought by more than 100 women who say they were abused or mistreated by FCI Dublin staff. The women will receive an average of about $1.1 million. Under the proposed agreement, plaintiffs will have ongoing and confidential access to the court-appointed monitor, lawyers and community-based counselors to report abuse and possible consent decree violations. The monitor will have access to the women, staff and records and will issue monthly reports to the public on key findings on a range of issues, including staff abuse and retaliation against inmates, medical care and compliance with early release rules. Advertisement The proposed agreement also includes protections against retaliation, including a ban on the Bureau of Prisons putting incarcerated plaintiffs in a special housing unit — a form of detention akin to solitary confinement — for low-level disciplinary matters. The agency will also be required to review and expunge invalid disciplinary reports by FCI Dublin staff that, in some instances, may have been issued to punish or keep inmates quiet. If allowed to stand, those disciplinary reports could hamper an inmate's access to early release or placement in a halfway house. Under the proposed agreement, the agency must release eligible plaintiffs to halfway houses and home confinement as soon as possible. The agency will also be required to restore early release credits that inmates may have lost when they were transferred from FCI Dublin.
