PHOENIX — Over objections of the Department of Homeland Security, a federal judge Friday agreed to let attorneys challenging what they claim are “inhumane and punitive” conditions at Border Patrol detention facilities examine four sites in Arizona.
Judge David C. Bury said the attorneys for immigrant rights groups had shown “good cause” that they need to see for themselves — and soon — the current conditions of facilities at Tucson, Nogales, Douglas and Casa Grande. Bury said the information would help the challengers prepare for a hearing at which they want him to order changes in how those detained by Border Patrol are treated.
He told the American Civil Liberties Union no more than five people — three experts, one photographer and one attorney — can visit each site, for no more than one day at each facility.
The judge also limited examination of secure areas, like holding cells, to no more than 10 minutes. Instead, Bury said the visitors should use an observation room.
The lawsuit, filed in June, contends detainees were denied food, adequate clothing and sleep. There are complaints of ice-cold conditions without blankets and lack of sanitary facilities.
It cites testimony from several people who had been locked up. But Karen Tumlin of the National Immigration Law Center said challengers needed more to make their case to Bury that he should order conditions changed.
“We really want to look around and we want our experts to look around,” she said. “The conditions that exist in those facilities we think are unfit for the type of holding they do for individuals.”
Tumlin acknowledged that Border Patrol could fix some of the conditions, now that it knows are coming. And she said the agency could provide some things detainees lacked, like soap.
But she said there’s only so much that could be changed — especially with the Border Patrol being told to give access within three weeks.
“You can’t change the bricks and mortar of facilities that are substandard,” Tumlin said. For example, she said, there is no place for anyone to shower at any of the facilities.
“Yet they routinely keep individuals there for two days if not longer,” she said. “That’s actually not acceptable in terms of what the constitutional standards are.”
Tumlin pointed out another thing will ensure the observers get a true look at the facilities and the conditions there: Bury ordered Border Patrol to produce a list of video surveillance conducted and maintained in holding cells and other areas, ranging from bathrooms to areas where initial intake is conducted. He also directed the agency not to destroy or record over any of the recordings it now has.
The order comes slightly more than a month after attorneys for the government said there was no reason to allow the challengers to have access, at least not this early in the lawsuit.
Sarah Fabian, an attorney with the Department of Justice, argued to Bury that the request amounts to a “broad fishing expedition.”
According to challengers, most of the more than 72,000 people detained in the Border Patrol Tucson Sector in a six-month period in 2013 — a “representative sample” the lawyers sought through public-records requests — endured the same conditions as the three unnamed plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
And, they said, while the agency’s own guidelines say holding cells should be used for no more than 12 hours, about 80 percent were held for at least twice that long, a third were held for 48 hours, and almost 8,000 were locked up three days or more.
“They have been packed into overcrowded and filthy holding cells with the lights glaring day and night; stripped of outer layers of clothing and forced to suffer in brutally cold temperatures; deprived of beds, bedding and sleep; denied adequate food, water, medicine and medical care,” the lawsuit states.
It also claims a lack of “basic sanitation and hygiene items” like soap, toilet paper and sanitary napkins.
Bury’s order also allows the observers to obtain temperature readings in detainee holding areas, inspect and photograph areas for food storage and preparation, and review documents that show procedures that are used for processing and detaining those apprehended.
