Migrants Are Tortured At Detention Facility In New Mexico

A new class-action lawsuit has alleged that migrants are routinely tortured at a detention center in New Mexico. Migrants are often denied medical care, access to working showers, adequate food and they are pressed into cleaning duties. Sometimes, they don’t even receive compensation for their work.

A new class-action lawsuit was announced on Wednesday by a coalition of migrants’ rights advocates. They filed the lawsuit on behalf of four Venezuelan migrants ranging in age from 26 to 40. 

What happened to migrants at detention facility in New Mexico?

Migrants sought asylum in New Mexico, a state in the Southwestern United States. They were kept at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico. Migrants said that they were denied medical care and food as well as access to working showers at the Torrance County Detention Facility. Migrants said that they were forced into cleaning duties, sometimes without compensation.

The new class-action lawsuit alleged that the United States immigration authorities disregarded signs of unsanitary and unsafe conditions at the migrant facility.

According to the lawsuit, the migrant facility has inadequate living conditions. There is also limited access to legal counsel for asylum-seekers and illegal migrants.

Mark Feldman, senior attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said, “The point is that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can’t turn a blind eye to conditions in detention facilities.”

The Torrance County Detention Facility in the rural town of Estancia, about 200 miles from the Mexico border, is contracted by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to accommodate at least 505 adult male migrants. However, the actual population of the migrants can be higher.

In the lawsuit, the migrants’ rights advocates urged Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end its contract with a private detention operator. They also urged the state lawmakers to ban local government contracts for migrant detention.

Migrants in the U.S.

As of September 2023, about 35,000 migrants were being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities across the United States.

The southern border region has struggled to cope with increasing numbers of migrants who come through the Darien Gap, a dangerous jungle at the Colombia-Panama border, before heading north.