Immigrants sent to the infamous Louisiana prison last month have already been punished for crimes that have spent time, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday in a lawsuit challenging the government’s decision to hold what it calls “the worst, worst, worst.”
The lawsuit accuss President Trump of choosing an old slave plantation known as Angola for its “unique and horrifying history,” and deliberately letting the victims of inhumane conditions (including basic necessities), including foul water and basic necessities, in violation of the double eopaldi clause that protects people from being punished twice for the same crime.
The ACLU also argues that some migrants should be released, some migrants detained in the newly opened “Louisiana Lockup” because the government failed to deport them within six months of the removal order. The lawsuit cites a 2001 Supreme Court ruling filed in several recent immigration cases, including Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
“Anti-immigration campaign under the guise of “making America safe again” does not alienate or justify indefinite detention in “America’s most bloody prison” without the rights given to criminal defendants.”
The AP has sent requests for comment to the US Department of Homeland Security, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry.
The lawsuit comes a month after state and federal authorities gathered at the vast Louisiana State Penitentiary and announced that the previously closed prison complex has been renovated to house up to 400 immigrant detainees who have said they include the most violent custody.
The complex was previously called a “dungeon” because it had previously held prisoners in isolated cells in isolated cells for more than 23 hours a day.
Ice has reused the facility amid the ongoing legal battle over the Everglades immigration detention center known as the Florida Everglades’ “Crocodile Alcatraz,” and Trump continues his massive attempt to eliminate millions of people suspected of illegally entering the country. The federal government is competing to expand its deportation infrastructure, and together with state allies have announced other new facilities, including what is called the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana and the “Cornhuskirk Link” in Nebraska. Ice is trying to detain 100,000 people under the $45 billion expansion that Trump signed into law in July.
Last month in Angola, Homeland Security’s Department of Christi Noem told reporters that the largest “legendary” security prison in the United States has been chosen to house new ice facilities to encourage Americans to self-report illegally. “The facility holds the most dangerous criminals,” she said.
Authorities said migrant detainees have been isolated from thousands of private prisoners in Angola, many of whom are subject to life in prison for violent crimes.
“I know the media are trying to have field days at this facility, and they’ll try to find that everything in our business is wrong, in order to create people who have broken the law in the most violent ways,” Republican Landry said last month.
“If you don’t think they belong to this place, you’re having a problem.”
The ACLU lawsuit states that the detainees of the “Louisiana Lockup” were “forced on a hunger strike.” Detainees described long-successful facilities that were not ready to house them, saying they were fighting mold, dust and “black” water coming out of the shower, court records show.
Federal and state officials say these claims are part of a “false story” created by the media, and that hunger strikes only occurred after inaccurate reports.
The lawsuit was filed in Baton Rouge Federal Court on behalf of Oscar Hernandez Amaya, a 34-year-old Honjuran man who had been in ice custody for two years. He was transported to “Louisiana Lockup” from the Pennsylvania Ice Detention Center last month.
Amaya fled Honduras 20 years ago after refusing to warn a violent MS-13 gang “to torture and kill another person.” The gang had been recruiting him at age 12, court documents say.
Amaya came to the US and worked there “without any problems” until 2016. He was arrested that year and later convicted of an attempted assault that worsened and sentenced to more than four years in prison. He was released about two years later with good time credits and was then transferred to ice custody.
This year’s immigration judge filed a lawsuit claiming that he protected Amaya’s “treaty against torture” from returning to Honduras, but the US government failed to expel him to other countries.
“The U.S. Supreme Court makes it very clear that immigrant detention cannot be used for punitive purposes,” Louisiana’s legal director, Nora Ahmed, told the Associated Press. “We cannot provide time for the crimes of immigration detention.”
Mustian and Klein write for the Associated Press. Mustian reported from New York.
