Immigrant detainees deserve decent level of care | My View | santafenewmexican.com

In Ralph Lucero’s article, (“Cibola County will pay price for ICE bill,” My View, Feb. 22) he makes some good points, uses some suspect numbers, and in my view, misses the whole point of House Bill 9. He probably is correct that some jobs at the Cibola County Correction Center will be lost. But a staff reduction of 200 out of 234 (85%) for a reduction of 40% of the facility’s population seems high, since the Department of Homeland Security statistics give the percentage of violent criminal immigrant detainees at well below 30%. Many detainees were following legal requirements when taken into custody. They are not threats.

The stories of people who were held in detention facilities being used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS are uniformly horrific: Poor sanitation, being forced to sleep on floors, substandard food, lack of medical attention, abusive staff, lights left on 24/7, poorly controlled temperatures and other atrocities are not supposed to occur in the United States. When our elected congressional representatives have attempted to exercise their oversight duties via inspection, they have been repeatedly refused admittance. People have even died in custody.

If everything is being done properly, there is no reason to hide things and prevent visits. These conditions may not be present in the Cibola County Correction Center, but they are repeatedly and frequently cited in ICE detention centers throughout the country. There are other violations of our laws, Constitution and Bill of Rights. New Mexico and New Mexicans should not be party to such activities.

All Americans deserve to know that people will be treated humanely when in our county — especially when in our government’s care and custody. I support HB 9 because I do not support the abuses that we know take place in these detention facilities, and I am confident there are plenty of other, worse abuses not listed.

I am proud New Mexico has taken action to ensure we are not party to the atrocities being committed by ICE and DHS. History will not be kind to the people who are involved in any part of this program. I do feel sorry for hard-working people who are harmed as a result of this administration’s malfeasance and encourage people to speak out when they see abuses of people’s rights.

Homeland Security officials have been buying industrial warehouses to increase capacity. In other facilities they contract with, there are wire cages to hold detainees. There is no reason to believe they won’t be using cages in the warehouses they’re buying.

No Americans or New Mexicans should be involved in this travesty. I encourage people to contact the present administration and our Congressional representatives to demand that ICE and DHS detainees be treated with at least the same standards of care extended to our incarcerated criminal population.

Brian Rees is a U.S. Navy submarine veteran, busy retiree and La Cienega resident.