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For months, immigrants held at the federal Broadview ICE facility have been describing terrible conditions they\u2019ve experienced: overcrowding, poor food, nowhere to sleep, isolation from the outside world \u2014 including no access to legal counsel.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, immigrants rights lawyers and advocates filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration\u2019s top immigration enforcement officials, on behalf of two men and everyone who\u2019s been jailed in the immigration processing facility turned de facto detention center,<\/u><\/a> calling the center a \u201cblack box in which to disappear people from the U.S. justice and immigration systems.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit accuses Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others of \u201cwarehousing people at Broadview for days on end. The consequences have been dire, and wholly predictable.<\/p>\n \u201cDefendants know and intend that the conditions they have created in Broadview are resulting in the inhumane treatment\u201d of an unknown number of immigrants held since the feds launched what it calls \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d in September.<\/p>\n In a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, \u201cAny claims there are subprime conditions at the Broadview ICE facility are false.\u201d DHS is the parent agency for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. McLaughlin made several claims about the conditions in Broadview to rebut the assertions in the lawsuit but did provide any evidence to support them.<\/p>\n Many of the conditions described in the lawsuit were previously reported by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ: Sleeping on cold crowded floors, no showers or hygiene products, lack of access to medicine.<\/p>\n Delfino Ropez holds prescription medication on Oct. 21 outside the Broadview ICE processing facility for his uncle, who was detained.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n But the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the MacArthur Justice Center and the Chicago office of Eimer Stahl, whose lawyers filed the suit and have represented immigrants held at Broadview, added new details accusing the government of denying detainees access to legal counsel:<\/p>\n \u201cFederal officers at Broadview\u2026 are coercing people to sign immigration paperwork that many detainees do not understand,\u201d giving up their rights to see an immigration judge before being sent out of the country. People are also being sent to detention facilities far away \u2014 or out of the country altogether, the lawsuit says, \u201cbefore their attorneys can locate them and intervene.\u201d And immigrants are being held without bond, prevented from speaking with an attorney who could petition in immigration court for their release.<\/p>\n Plus, attorneys can\u2019t physically find their clients because ICE\u2019s online detainee locator isn\u2019t accurate, according to the lawsuit. Families of immigrants known to be at Broadview have told WBEZ and the Sun-Times that when they search for their loved one, the locator responds that the person is generally in ICE custody and provides a number to call.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone, no matter their legal status, has the right to access counsel and to not be subject to horrific and inhumane conditions,\u201d said Alexa Van Brunt, Illinois Director of the MacArthur Justice Center.<\/p>\n The lawsuit argues that the conditions at Broadview are not unique.<\/p>\n \u201cSimilar overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, lack of basic hygiene, insufficient food and water, inadequate sleeping conditions, substandard medical care, and extreme restrictions on attorney-client communications are pervasive\u201d at immigration facilities throughout the country,\u201d the lawsuit charges. The conditions have sparked multiple lawsuits accusing the federal government of violating the law and ICE\u2019s own policies.<\/p>\n The Sun-Times and WBEZ have documented how the federal immigration processing center in west suburban Broadview, which is meant to hold people for a few hours at a time, is instead keeping people for days on end as a detention center.<\/p>\n