Migrants detained at the New Mexico Detention Facility denounce inhumane treatment

SEATTLE - Immigrants detained at New Mexico's Torrance County Detention Facility say they continue to experience inhumane conditions as they await a resolution to their asylum requests. This problem has been ongoing for a while and immigrants that have been detained at the facility have denounced the violations of detention standards for years.

On July 10, Five immigrants detained at the facility shared a letter on social media this week denouncing the treatment received at the facility, complaining about the shortage of medicine, water and personal hygiene products. The letter added that people detained at Torrance were victims of racism, malnourished and even reported physical and phycological abuse.

The detention center is located in the rural town of Estancia, in New Mexico, about 200 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border. Since its establishment, at least four deaths have been publicly reported at TCDF according to media reports and wrongful death lawsuits.

One of the five migrants who signed the letter, Mario Fernando Crespo, talked to Telemundo about his experience since being detained after he and his family left El Salvador in fear of criminal groups. Crespo was detained in November of 2023 and, almost eight months later, is still living in the center, claiming authorities have not given him official reason for this. His wife and his daughter have been able to continue their asylum process in Forth Worth, Texas.

"This is not a detention center for immigrants, this is a prison where they leave you up to six hours in your cell and where you get no more than one hour of recreation," said Crespo in a phone interview.

In April, a group of 12 asylum seekers testified in front of Torrance county commissioners about the conditions at the detention center. In November of 2023, a group of immigrants sued ICE saying the agency certified a sham inspection in 2022 that allowed the federal agency to evade federal law and keep holding immigrants at Torrance under inhumane conditions.

Those written statements from asylum seekers described unfair asylum proceedings, abuse by guards, unfair wages for labor done inside, bug-infested and rotting food as well as dirty drinking water, a lack of sunlight and fresh air and inadequate medical care.

Those testimonies match Crespo's story, who told Noticias Telemundo that "sometimes there are people suffering of a medical condition and the guards do not come and help them. They arrive at whatever time they want...this detention center should have a protocol for medial emergencies, but they don't have one," he added.

Torrance County Detention Facility is managed by the private prison company CoreCivic and, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 90% of all people under ICE detention are held in private facilities.

In January of 2021, President Biden issued an executive order directing the Department of Justice to phase out its contracts with private prison companies, but it notably excluded ICE detention. Since then, the number of immigrants detained by ICE, as well as revenues for private prison companies, have only increased.

In 2022, CoreCivic made $552.2 million in revenue from ICE detention contracts, representing 30% of its total revenue. Despite calls from activists and advocates to decrease funding for ICE detention, Congress approved a budget of $2.9 billion dollars to hold 34,000 people in ICE detention each day for Fiscal Year 2023.