By Samantha Henry
HERALD NEWS
Nearly eight months after the Department of Homeland Security said it would issue
the first official report on the treatment of immigrants in federal detention,
immigrant-rights advocates are wondering what's taking so long.
"I don't think they intend to release it -- it's too damning," said Jeannette
Gabriel, an organizer with the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee. "If the audit is
released, even the haphazard audit that was conducted, we believe that it would show
such systematic abuse, that ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) would be
forced to make systemic changes."
The report, conducted by auditors from Homeland Security's Office of Inspector
General, examined the treatment of federal immigration detainees at several facilities
nationwide – including the Passaic County Jail and the Hudson County Correctional
Center -- and how well the jails were complying with federal detention standards.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tamara Faulkner said via e-mail Monday that the
audit's delay was due to "a complex project that involved accumulating and analyzing
information gleaned from myriad sources and many facilities."
Faulkner said the Inspector General had launched the investigation in 2005 in
response to complaints of abuse and poor treatment at different facilities used by the
federal government to house immigrant detainees. Nearly 60 percent of the estimated
21,000 federal immigration detainees are currently held at county jails and privately
run detention facilities. The Passaic County Jail garnered nationwide attention for
its treatment of immigration detainees when allegations of physical abuse, including
the use of attack dogs and poor healthcare, were exposed in the national media.
Faulkner said in addition to investigating the specific allegations of detainee
mistreatment at different facilities, the audit would examine ICE's processes for
tracking detainees.
She said the audit was now scheduled for release "in late summer," but declined to
specify a date.
Auditors visited the Passaic County Jail over the course of several weeks last
summer, where, according to Warden Charles Meyers, they reviewed everything from
complaints of under-cooked chicken to the jail's bookkeeping records. They also interviewed
a number of immigrant detainees.
In July, Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale threw the auditors out of the county
jail for what Meyers said was their unprofessional conduct. After Speziale and
Meyers traveled to Washington to meet with DHS officials in August, the auditors were
allowed back to finish their work.
In December, Speziale announced he was suspending the inter-governmental service
agreement with federal immigration authorities; Meyers insisted the timing was
coincidental.
"The audit wasn't related to the suspension (of the DHS contract)," he said. "It was
all the unfair press we received and we realized we could make up the money with
other federal detainees without the headache."
Meyers referred to the fact that the jail now houses an increased number of U.S.
Marshall prisoners to compensate for the loss of moneys DHS paid the jail to house the
immigrant detainees, which at one time netted the $12 million in yearly revenue.
Officials transferred out the last of the jail's immigration detainees in April.
Sherriff's Department spokesman Bill Maer said Monday the department did not expect
the audit would find fault with the way the jail handled immigration detainees.
"We have no fear. We're not nervous. We hope it's done fairly," he said. "We hope
the personal agendas of the auditors are not in play."
Maer said the Sheriff's Department felt that the auditors listened only to detainee
advocates.
Gabriel, the immigration detainee advocate, said auditors were "incredibly hostile
to community activists and attorneys throughout the process."
Federal guidelines covering the detention of people held on immigration violations
-- which are currently civil, not criminal offenses-- do not hold the weight of law.
Such standards were drafted after heavy lobbying by the legal community, and the
National Lawyers Guild is preparing to petition the government to give the guidelines
legal weight.
But until then, detainee advocates said, there is little oversight of the treatment
of immigrants taken into custody.
Falah Ajaj, a Palestinian who was held at the Passaic County Jail on an immigration
violation for four months in 2005, was one of those interviewed by government
auditors. He said he hoped the audit would expose the way detainees are treated and lead
to changes.
"I'd like them to close this jail; don't put any inmates in the jail," he said. "If
you stay one hour there, you can get sick for 10 years. This is not for human
beings, this jail."
