One by one, a man in prison-like clothing worn by people with immigrant custody, sitting in front of a videoconferencing camera, pointing to a bruise on his body.
Some point to their faces. Others gesture to their arms, legs, and torso. Some of the bruises are very dark.
In video recordings of their messages, eight men say they are being held at the El Paso Service Processing Centre under the control of immigration and customs enforcement, and security guards at the facility defeated them on February 25th.
“At this facility, as revealed in my face and most of our bodies, today was another day of abuse by officials at the center. We are tired and we are looking for help and justice,” Jessu Quintero said in Spanish.
In the video, Quintero’s face appears to be swollen on one side, and his upper cheeks are a deep tint of purple.
ICE did not respond to requests for comment from Capital & Main. (Many ice detention facilities are owned and operated by private prison companies, but run by a company located in El Paso, Texas. It is performed by the ICE itself. )
The allegations arise as President Donald Trump has focus His anti-immigrant rhetoric in his Venezuelans, especially in a gang known as Tren de Aragua. Labeled as a terrorist organization. His administration flew a group of Venezuelans I’ll bind them In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba It was incorrectly claimed They were all gang members.
More recently, Trump summoned the alien enemy laws of 1798 to expel Venezuelans without a hearing. As a result, the ice Hundreds have been sent In El Salvador, where they disappeared into the country The infamous prison system.
It is not clear from the El Paso video recorded by an unidentified family and later provided to Capital & Main. Ledys Isea, a Venezuelan man who is housed in the same unit as the man in the video, later told Capital & Main that he was running people from mostly Venezuelan housing units, mostly Mexican units and eating dinner at the same time.
ISEA said tensions are rising, especially at facilities. Overcrowding and subsequent shortages Food, hygiene products, clothing. He said some of the Mexican men began to attack Venezuelans and called them vulgar names. From there he said things got “out of control.”
However, he said the guards only attacked the Venezuelans. He said the guards then pulled many of the Venezuelans into another room and beat them.
“I have friends who went into the processing room that was not beaten. They were hurt when they came out,” ISEA said in Spanish.
“None of the Mexicans were taken into custody that day,” he added. “None of the Mexicans were beaten. They’re not alone.”
Darwin Andre’s Gomez Izkiel says in a video recorded later on the same day of a man seeking help and justice, officials kicked him in the ear during the attack.
Miguel Bajamond Barrio hugged his thigh to show swelling, and authorities say he kicked him there.
“We are victims of abuse, aggression and racism,” Bajamond Barrio said in Spanish. “This thing that’s going on here is inhumane. In fact, it should be a processing centre. We are not prisoners. We are being handled by immigration officers.”
Immigrant detention is possible Look and Feel Like prisons, from a legal perspective, yes. Civil detention Not criminal detention. This means that ice can only hold people if they believe they are unlikely to show up for their case, or if they are considered dangerous.
Some of the men in the video are seeking ice to expel the ice so that they don’t have to spend more time at the facility.
Many of the men recite the identification numbers attached to immigration records on the video. Capital & Main confirmed that all those who gave their ID were deported one to four months before the alleged assault. All but one appeared before a New Jersey judge for court hearing. Another man heard of his case in Texas.
ISEA said authorities locked several men in solitary cells after the video surfaced. He said several men have organized hunger strikes and are planning to continue making videos and are not afraid of the outcome.
“They treat us like dogs, we are humans,” Isea said. “We’re already tired. We’re tired. We’re tired of the bad treatment.”
In early March, after talking to ISEA, Capital & Main learned that he had been deported to Mexico. The Biden administration has set up an agreement with Mexico to receive certain nationalities, including Venezuelans, and the Trump administration continues to use that route for several deportations.
The ISEA sister who still lives in Venezuela said her brother doesn’t have a phone yet but works to call her whenever possible from a borrowed phone. Some of the men in the video were deported along with him.
Using the identification number, Capital & Main confirmed that at least two men in the video were no longer in ice custody, but as of mid-March, at least four people appeared to be still at the El Paso Service Processing Center.
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