More than 100 detained immigrants transferred from New England to New Mexico, advocates say...Boston Globe
Molly Molloy
More than 100 detained immigrants transferred from New England to New Mexico, advocates say
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.David Dee Delgado/Photographer: David Dee Delgado/More than 100 immigrants in New England detention centers were transferred to a privately run ICE detention facility in New Mexico without notice at the beginning of the month, immigrant advocates told the Globe.
On Feb. 2, about 115 detainees were moved from the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, and at least one other facility in New England, to the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, N.M., according to several advocates, attorneys, and detained immigrants at the New Mexico facility.
Immigration experts said these large-scale transfers of individuals held in the interior of the country to a facility typically used to quickly process recently arrived migrants closer to the border appeared to mark a step toward the Trump administration’s goal of arresting and deporting millions of immigrants living in the US without a lawful status.
“We figured this would be the start of a new trend of how the facilities are being used here as Trump rolls out the apparent mass deportation plans,” said Rebecca Sheff, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico. Sheff said the transfer of scores of detainees “from a place as far away as New England ... is highly atypical.”
Some individuals had been held in New England for just a matter of days before their transfer; others had been detained for longer. But the New Mexico facility had generally been used as an “expedited removal” facility to process asylum seekers who recently entered illegally by crossing the southern border, particularly from the El Paso sector’s US Customs and Border Protection facilities.
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In Massachusetts, the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, which had the capacity to hold about 400 detainees as of last year, is the only remaining ICE detention facility in the state, and Plymouth Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. recently renewed the contract to hold detainees for ICE in a part of the county jail through September of 2029. But to move forward with major deportation efforts, the Trump administration requires significant bed capacity nationwide to hold people awaiting their court proceedings, or as deportation arrangements are made. Recently, the Cumberland County Jail in Maine has also been holding detainees for ICE.
Karen Barry, a spokesperson for the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office, deferred questions about the number of people transferred on Feb. 2 to ICE. She said the sheriff’s office does not track transfers. “We do not determine who comes to us, how long they stay, or where they go from here. We are contracted to provide care and housing,” Barry said via email.
On Feb. 1, the facility housed 503 men in ICE custody, and on Wednesday, the facility held 483 men in ICE custody, Barry said.
ICE has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Dozens of those transferred to the Torrance facility in New Mexico were held at Plymouth, advocates said. Miguel, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who had been living in Massachusetts for more than 10 years, said in a phone interview from the Torrance facility that he was detained at Plymouth for about a month before the unexpected transfer.
Miguel, 39, said that the men had been awakened suddenly in the early hours of the morning of Feb. 2, without being told where they were going, and were soon put on a flight to New Mexico. For four days, he could not contact his family, including his three children, ages 12, 7, and 5. Now, he can call them, but only when he has enough money in his account to pay for the call.
“They ask, ‘Papá, where are you? When are you coming? Come back to us,’” Miguel said in Spanish. “I can’t find the words to tell them.”
The conditions at the New Mexico facility are significantly worse than those in Plymouth, said Miguel, who asked the Globe to use only his first name for fear of retaliation. He said he and his fellow detainees have no privacy when showering or using the restroom. He said he is dehydrated because he has not had enough water to drink; he has not been able to shower in days; he has to pay for phone calls; and his clothes are rarely washed.
He pleaded with authorities to be deported back to the Dominican Republic instead of enduring a prolonged detention at the facility.
“Now, I feel like we are in real hell,” he said. “We are in a jail that is not apt for people.”
Miguel, who lived in Lawrence, said he was not surprised that ICE had arrested him, as he was living without authorization in the US, and knew that he had committed “errors” when he was younger, referencing a run-in with law enforcement over an alcohol-related incident. The Globe was not immediately able to learn the details of the case or any charges.
Still, he said, regarding the conditions at the New Mexico facility, “No one deserves this.”
Immigration advocates have long pushed for the closure of the Torrance County facility in New Mexico, which is run by CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison companies in the country. In 2022, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, which provides oversight for DHS, recommended that ICE remove detainees from the detention center, citing violation of ICE detention standards, including staffing shortages, unsanitary living conditions, and inadequate medical care.
In 2022, Kesley Vial, a Brazilian man died by suicide at the facility.
“During our in-person inspection, we found such egregious conditions in the facility that we issued a management alert in March 2022 to notify ICE of issues requiring immediate attention,” the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security reported in 2022.
Brian Todd, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, deferred any questions about transfers to ICE, and said in a statement that the company “does not know the circumstances of individuals when they are placed in our facilities.
“Our responsibility is to care for each person respectfully and humanely while they receive the legal due process that they are entitled to,” Todd said. “That care ensures the individuals in our care have access to legal counsel, three nutritious meals a day, comprehensive medical and mental health care and faith-based resources, as well as opportunities to stay connected with their loved ones.”
Still, immigrant advocates like Genovese, of the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, say problems at the facility have been evident for years.
“We’ve seen understaffing and lack of training play a huge part in the lack of safety that people experience at the facility,” Genovese said, “whether that’s physical safety because there’s no guards in the units for extended periods of time, to mental health safety, if someone’s experiencing a mental health crisis.”
Ian Philabaum, the director of legal organizing at Innovation Law Lab, a nonprofit organization supporting detained immigrants in New Mexico and other states, said Torrance, is “a place that is known for breaking the spirits of asylum seekers.”
Randy, a 23-year-old Dominican national who said he came to the US about a year ago and was living in Lynn, said he was arrested recently after a traffic stop. He was held for about two weeks at a facility in Maine, he said, before being transferred to the Torrance detention center. Randy, who also asked to be identified by his first name for fear of reprisal, said he did not know where he was being taken when he was flown west. Immigration court records show he had an outstanding deportation order as of last fall, but Randy said he remained in the country despite the order.
He implored authorities in a phone interview from detention to let him return to the Dominican Republic voluntarily, and as soon as possible, because he was concerned that he could no longer endure the conditions at the New Mexico facility.
“Here, they treat us like dogs, like we are not human,” Randy said in Spanish. “What I want is deportation, to go back to my country, and to never come back here. I want to die in my country, because tell me: How am I going to die here, in this jail?”
Sean Cotter of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at giulia...@globe.com. Follow her @giuliamcdnr.