On April 9, 2010, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a civil complaint with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the mistreatment of detainees at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas.  The complaint outlines reports of misconduct and abuse by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in response to a hunger strike of about one hundred detainees. The complaint is chiefly concerned with reports of physical abuse by ICE employees that clearly violate the ICE/DRO Standards, which expressly prohibit “[s]triking a detainee for failing to obey an order” and “[s]triking a detainee when grasping or pushing him/her would achieve the desired result.” It is also concerned with the retaliatory tactics of ICE employees, such as exhibiting disregard for the needs and conditions of individuals as well as seeking court orders to force-feed them.

CCR’s complaint calls for the Obama Administration to enact the overdue changes in ICE to ensure transparency and accountability, including new infrastructure to monitor and address substandard conditions of DHS detention centers. We feel the DHS and the Obama Administration should immediately and thoroughly investigate the hunger strikers’ grievances at PIDC as well as other immigration detention centers throughout Texas.