Immigrant rights groups allege increased, arbitrary use of solitary confinement at ICE detention center in Aurora

BY TATIANA FLOWERS THE COLORADO SUN

ree immigrant rights organizations have led a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security demanding an investigation into what they say is the increased and arbitrary use of solitary con nement at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora.

e American Immigration Council, the National Immigration Project and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network led the complaint on behalf of people who are currently in the detention center or were recently housed there.

e facility, owned and operated by GEO Group Inc., is where the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency holds people who have pending or recently concluded immigration cases. Most held there are seeking asylum or protection from torture in their home countries and are typically awaiting hearings in immigration court, said Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation at Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.

e complaint states people with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by the overuse of solitary con nement at the facility. It alleges a pattern of placing people at risk of self-harm in isolation to in ict punishment and gain control rather than providing a safe environment and adequate medical and mental health care. e complaint also alleges that GEO Group has failed to ensure professional conduct by its sta and that ICE and GEO Group have jeopardized the health and safety of all people detained there including those who have survived assault and fear violence. e complaint, which includes interviews with eight people identied by pseudonyms, calls on the Department of Homeland Security to end a contract between ICE and GEO Group, release the people detained there and permanently close the facility.

At a minimum, the complainants said, they are asking DHS to promptly investigate the use of solitary connement and the incidents reported in the complaint, and probe whether the facility is complying with ICE policies before recommending corrective actions for sta .

“Under no circumstances is assignment in a special management unit used in a retaliatory manner or without careful adherence to the performance-based national detention standards and the ICE noti cation procedures,” a GEO spokesman wrote in an email. “As a service provider to a federal agency, GEO is required to meet DHS policies and standards and plays no role in creating them.”

To ensure that violations described in the complaint don’t occur at other detention centers, the immigration groups are also asking ICE to end the use of solitary in all the facilities it contracts with and implement stricter measures of accountability for the locations that violate these obligations.

“ICE is responsible for the safety of detained individuals, which it has repeatedly demonstrated it cannot provide,” said Rebekah Wolf, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council.

“ e egregious use of solitary connement is detrimental to detained individuals’ mental and physical well-being,” she said. “ e misuse and overuse of solitary con nement leaves people in detention fearful to report safety concerns for fear of its punitive use, and without recourse to protect themselves.”

Steve Kotecki, a spokesman for the agency’s Denver eld o ce, said he would not comment on speci c allegations detailed in the complaint. ICE takes allegations of misconduct seriously and sta are required to abide by company policies that outline professional and ethical behavior, he said.

When a complaint is received, it is investigated, he said. ICE encourages ling complaints about detention facilities by calling 888-351-4024, he added. ICE is committed to ensuring people in its custody live in safe and humane environments under appropriate conditions of con nement, Kotecki added.

However, growing research shows solitary con nement is ine ective, dangerous and inhumane and leads to new or worsening mental health conditions. In the worst cases, prolonged isolation also leads to self-harm and suicide.

“When Biden ran for o ce he pledged to end the use of solitary con nement in the criminal setting and he issued an executive order in May 2022, on this issue,” said Ann Garcia, a sta attorney at the National Immigration Project. “From our perspective, his urgency to end the use and overuse of solitary con nement in the criminal setting certainly should extend to civil immigration settings.” e complaint in July follows a di erent one that was led in April 2022, which alleged racial discrimination, excessive force and retaliation against two Black immigrants housed at the ICE detention center in Aurora. e ICE O ce of Professional Responsibility’s review of Kamyar Samimi’s death at the detention center in 2017 found medical sta did not fully comply with several of its standards, such as maintaining an adequate number of medical sta and providing an on-call doctor with whom nurses could consult. Sta also failed to seek emergency care for Samimi after the only full-time physician followed GEO policy and ordered that Samimi be cut o from the methadone he had been legally taking for 20 years. He was held in solitary con nement in the medical unit for the last 16 days of his life, according to the complaint.

“We haven’t seen any response about any of the group complaints that we have led out of Aurora,” Lunn said.

Numerous complaints about medical and neglect and inadequate care for people held at GEO have been led with DHS, according to the complaint. Since 2012, three people detained have died at the Aurora facility. e deaths were avoidable and stemmed from poor medical care provided by GEO Group, the contractor providing health services, according to the complaint.

After Evalin-Ali Mandza died in 2012, an ICE contractor review found medical sta were unfamiliar with the organization’s chest pain protocol, that appropriate cardiac medicine was not given to Mandza while he was having a heart attack and that the long length of time it took to get him to a hospital all may have contributed to his death, according to the complaint.

On June 4, 2018, immigration organizations led a complaint about the Aurora facility’s failure to provide adequate medical and mental health care. And on June 11, 2019, the organizations led a supplement to the former complaint highlighting the experiences of ve additional people.

Melvin Calero Mendoza died at the Aurora facility on Oct. 13, 2022, from a pulmonary embolism that likely stemmed from a toe injury he sustained while playing soccer, which was left untreated for months.

Recent interviews with people who have been detained there con rm that the agency continues to fall short of meeting ICE detention standards, the complaint states.

“It is important to highlight that this is happening in the state of Colorado, a place that works diligently to provide a welcoming and hospitable refuge to immigrants, migrants, and refugees,” Lunn said. “ is complaint underscores that our local and state governments cannot prevent this type of harmful treatment as long as ICE operates in our communities.”