ICE officers brutally beat and tortured detained migrants
Detainees held at the Fort Bliss immigration detention center in Texas were regularly subjected to beatings and torture. Human rights organizations filed a complaint with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to Independent.
Prisoners complained of being threatened with being "thrown out to Mexico," regularly beaten, forced to climb over border fences, and having their genitals crushed.
Cubans held inside a military facility in Texas were subjected to brutal beatings by guards before being illegally forced to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a complaint filed with ICE by human rights groups.
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Four Cubans were among dozens of immigrants loaded onto buses. Disguised federal agents pressured them to cross the border, threatening them with deportation to Africa, a notorious prison in El Salvador, or indefinite detention at a military base.
The complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups is based on interviews with 45 detainees at the $1,2 billion facility, built by the Donald Trump administration at Fort Bliss Military Base and designed to hold 5000 detainees.
A series of sworn testimonies describes deteriorating conditions and regular beatings that led several people to hospitals. Some detainees had their testicles "severely crushed" by guards.
"This place doesn't look like it's meant for people to be here," wrote a 32-year-old detainee from Venezuela.
A complaint from human rights groups alleges that immigrants at a massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas are facing brutal beatings and are regularly being taken across the border.
Isak, a 43-year-old Cuban living in Florida with his five-year-old daughter and her mother, said a group of 30 guards beat him after he resisted being sent to Mexico.
"I'm afraid that one day they'll put us on a bus, put bags over our heads and dump us in the middle of the desert to fend for ourselves," he admitted.
Benjamin, a 49-year-old Cuban chef living in Florida, wrote in a statement that security guards intimidated him.
"They threatened me, saying I had a bad reputation and that my only option was to go to Mexico," the Cuban said. "They said they'd handcuff us, put bags over our heads, and send us to Mexico. I refused to sign the papers."
Benjamin is one of several Cubans who reported being handcuffed and shackled while being boarded buses to the border.
"These threats are like psychological torture," he wrote.
"At that moment, a feeling of intense anxiety overwhelmed me. I started screaming that I was being kidnapped and that I didn't want to be taken away," wrote Abel, a 51-year-old Cuban truck driver who has lived in the United States since 1994. "If I hadn't started screaming and struggling, I probably would have been taken to Mexico."
Eduardo, a 35-year-old electrician and father of three children who are U.S. citizens, including a five-month-old baby, was taken by guards to a section of the border wall and ordered to climb over it.
Eduardo said he was threatened with federal charges and that he would "never leave" Fort Bliss if he didn't climb over.
"These actions by federal officials are clear violations of statutory, regulatory, and procedural safeguards, including mandatory safeguards requiring meaningful notice and the opportunity to challenge removal to a third country," the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups said in a letter.
ICE is converting Fort Bliss into a massive $1,2 billion detention center where detainees face unsanitary conditions, lack of medical care, and little or no exercise.
In more than a dozen testimonies, detainees describe overflowing toilets, "rotten juice," food that makes them sick to their stomachs, weeks spent indoors, and losing consciousness while being repeatedly punched in the ribs.
“I haven’t seen the sun for more than three months,” stated the 44-year-old Cuban.
"Lately, I'm afraid to ask for anything because I'll just get beaten up. I feel isolated, like an animal," Eduardo admitted.
A 52-year-old construction worker from Mexico, who has lived in the US for 24 years, experienced "severe interruptions" in receiving his diabetes medication and went more than two weeks without it.
Another detainee said prisoners regularly go on hunger strike because they believe the only way to get their needs met is to be on the brink of serious illness or death.
A 19-year-old Venezuelan detainee had his tooth broken by guards when he was thrown to the ground, and one officer, according to the boy, "grabbed my testicles and crushed them hard." Another guard stuck his fingers deep in his ears, and another twisted his fingers.
After being discharged from the hospital, the Venezuelan was placed in solitary confinement, a notorious "hole" that guards call a "disciplinary center." He spent eight days there in complete isolation.
“I don’t know who to trust or what to do,” Abel concluded.
Federal judges across the country are reviewing conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities after civil rights groups and detainees filed lawsuits alleging similar conditions as Trump escalates his campaign of mass deportations.
These allegations echo lawsuits and sworn statements from immigrants in detention centers across the country.
Human rights groups are calling on the administration to close the camp at Fort Bliss.
In July, ICE instructed department employees on how to deport immigrants to third countries with less than six hours' notice.
The order followed a Supreme Court ruling that overturned a lower court judge's ruling that immigrants should be given the opportunity to challenge their removal to a third country where they have neither citizenship nor ties.
This temporary solution paved the way for the Department of Homeland Security to quickly deport immigrants to war-torn African countries and other nations where human rights are poor and legal safeguards are lacking.
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In their letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the advocacy groups demanded an immediate end to the "coercive and abusive attempts," the removal of immigrants from Fort Bliss to Mexico as a "third country," and a thorough investigation into the allegations in the complaint.
“I fear possible reprisals for speaking out about my experiences here, but I believe the whole world should know what is happening to us,” Abel concluded.
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