By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
The Alaska Department of Corrections announced that 35 men that were arrested and detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from out of state and held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex were transferred out of state on Monday.
ICE transferred 42 men to Alaska from out of state on June 8, as part of an ongoing agreement between the Department of Corrections and the U.S. Department of Justice, amid a nationwide deportation crackdown. The move sparked daily protests, a fact-finding hearing by the Alaska House Judiciary Committee, and concerns from attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska around the punitive conditions of detention, violations of due process and criminal confinement.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said department Commissioner Jen Winkelman was not available for an interview on Tuesday to discuss the transfer, concerns around conditions of detention, and ongoing plans to house ICE detainees in Alaska.
“The ICE detainees who were transferred due to severe overcrowding in the Washington facility are no longer in the custody of the Alaska Department of Corrections,” said DOC spokesperson Betsy Holley in an email, in which she included the italics and underlining. She added that all questions on the details of the transfer should be directed to DHS/ICE.
Cindy Woods, a senior immigration law and policy fellow with the ACLU of Alaska, said the transfer was not unexpected, since DOC had said they agreed to hold detainees for 30 days. She also said she and several other attorneys were not notified of the transfers.
“Yesterday evening, I flagged the attorneys that I know represent folks who had been transferred, to let them know that they were being transferred again, and but none of them had been told by ICE prior to that,” she said.
Woods said all the detainees were going through civil immigration proceedings, and faced no criminal charges.
“These individuals were all in civil detention, so they were not being detained as part of an ongoing criminal proceeding. They were all in administrative immigration proceedings,” she said, and a number of the men have applied for or received asylum protections.
“And then there were also a handful of folks who were waiting for their immigration proceedings to commence,” she said. “And so (they) were waiting for the opportunity to speak with a judge about either a potential asylum claim or some other request for immigration relief.”
The ICE transfer of detainees to Alaska DOC custody raised serious concerns around standards of detention from legislators and advocates. Attorneys testified before the June 20 hearing of the Alaska House Judiciary Committee that despite no criminal charges, their clients reported that they were subject to lengthy lockdowns, overuse of handcuffs and overcrowding — sleeping three to a cell. In addition, they were denied or had limited access to calls with family and attorneys, regularly strip-searched after visits with attorneys, and subjected to use of force by DOC staff members, who pepper-sprayed a unit to stop a “verbal demonstration” on June 12, the attorneys said.
The ACLU of Alaska sent a letter on Saturday to Alaska state officials and ICE demanding detainees be removed from Anchorage Correctional Complex custody, and a stop to any additional transfers “unless and until constitutionally adequate conditions of confinement and attorney access can be guaranteed.”
The letter provided further detail on the pepper-spray incident: “This ‘verbal demonstration’ consisted of detainees requesting access to their belongings, including an individual who was trying to access his property to get the phone number for his consulate. Following the incident, many individuals experienced respiratory distress, including coughing, burning sensations in their mouth, nose, and eyes, and nosebleeds, and did not receive medical attention. They were also unable to change their clothes for an extended period of time.”
Holley said in the Department of Corrections’ emailed response to an interview request that the state did not make the call to transfer the detainees.
“The decision to transfer these detainees out of Alaska rested solely with the federal government. The decision was not influenced by the recent House Judiciary Committee hearing or the letter issued by the ACLU this past weekend,” Holley said.
“It is important to note the Alaska DOC routinely houses both civil detainees and federal prisoners. While we do not currently know whether ICE will request additional placements in the future, the Alaska DOC remains fully prepared to support DHS/ICE in coordinated efforts that prioritize public safety and the efficient use of government resources.”
The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Corrections in May challenging what they say is “inadequate, dangerous and inhumane” health care provided for incarcerated Alaskans.
Woods said the DOC protocols and detention conditions are unnecessary, and violated the men’s right to due process. “The conditions that they were all held in were punitive, whether or not that was the intention of the government, and such punitive nature are clearly outside the scope of the law, and especially when it comes to the standards and the requirements for civil detainees, who are not being held under criminal charges,” she said.
ICE did not respond to requests for comment about why the detainees were transferred to and from Alaska. Woods said she was able to search in the ICE inmate locator and confirm the men were transferred back to the ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, with reportedly better conditions.
Woods said detainees reported the experience in DOC custody as humiliating.
“They were being held in really substandard conditions, being subjected to pepper spray and strip searches, and handcuffs, and all of those things. And so it was really hard for a lot of people to deal with that shift,” she said, referring to being transferred from Washington state to Alaska custody. “And especially because they were also largely cut off from those outside relationships that sustained them, particularly those who, you know, regularly spoke with their children and their parents and their loved ones who were not located in the United States — having that kind of completely shut off really impacted the individuals who experienced that.”
On Friday, seven U.S. congressional representatives from Washington and Oregon sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security questioning why detainees were transferred to Alaska, as well as the cost and criteria for who is transferred. The letter also raised concerns that “ICE is wasting taxpayer dollars, flying dozens of people between detention centers thousands of miles apart, in efforts that do nothing to help protect Americans.”
