Judge orders improvements at a Chicago-area immigration facility after claims of inhumane conditions

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered authorities to improve a Chicago-area immigration facility after a group of detainees sued, alleging they were being kept in “inhumane” conditions.

The order will be in effect for 14 days. It requires officials to provide detainees at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview with a clean bedding mat and sufficient space to sleep, soap, towels, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, menstrual products and prescribed medications.

“People shouldn’t be sleeping next to overflowing toilets,” U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said. “They should not be sleeping on top of each other.”

A message left Wednesday for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wasn’t immediately returned.

Attorneys representing the federal government had argued that the conditions in the building were not bad enough to warrant the changes the plaintiffs requested. They said the proposed improvements would shut down the facility.

Advocates have raised concerns about Broadview’s conditions for months, and the facility has drawn scrutiny from members of Congress. Lawyers and relatives of people held there have called it a de facto detention center, and tense demonstrations have been held there for several weeks.

The temporary restraining order says the holding rooms at the facility must be cleaned twice a day. Detainees must be allowed to shower at least every other day and should have three full meals and bottled water upon request.

Gettleman required authorities to allow detainees to call lawyers in private with no cost and provide them with a list of pro bono attorneys in English and Spanish. Agents are barred from misrepresenting documents provided to detainees to sign.

The judge had called the alleged conditions “unnecessarily cruel” after a hearing Tuesday about overflowing toilets, crowded cells, no beds and water that “tasted like sewer.”

He said he found the witnesses “highly credible,” adding he was moved by the seriousness of the conditions.

Gettleman requested a status report by noon Friday on how authorities are fulfilling the requirements. He said he knew complying with his order would be hard.

“I don’t expect to snap my fingers and have this done,” he said

Plaintiffs want documents

An attorney for plaintiffs celebrated the order for improving the conditions of the facility and preventing detainees from unknowingly signing away their rights.

“They cannot slip in a form written in a language somebody doesn’t understand and then all of a sudden the person gets whisked out of the country,” Alexa Van Brunt of the MacArthur Justice Center said. “That coercion has got to stop.”

Kevin Fee, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said he hopes the document-gathering phase of the case will offer a rare glimpse inside the facility.

The order “sheds some sunlight on the inside of a facility that has been shrouded in secrecy for far too long,” Fee said.

Plaintiffs are requesting documents on Broadview detention policies, information on how ICE’s online detainee locator is maintained, emails from attorneys requesting information about their clients, a detention log, a facility inspection log, and details on what food, water and medications federal authorities are purchasing for detainees.

Officer defends use of force

In another Chicago courtroom, Senior Border Patrol official Greg Bovino defended the use of force by agents accused of using pepper balls, tear gas and other tactics against people protesting federal immigration policies and the detaining of immigrants in the area.

Bovino made the statement in a deposition — a private interview with lawyers from both sides — given last week. It was brought into evidence during a preliminary injunction hearing Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by news outlets and protesters who say agents have used too much force during demonstrations.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs played a clip of Bovino grabbing and tackling a man to the ground during one demonstration outside the Broadview facility.

Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Munoz said he was standing beside the man and was knocked down and pinned by Bovino during the chaos. Munoz said Bovino smacked his phone from his hands.

Munoz said he was arrested and detained in the Broadview facility for eight hours. He has not returned to the facility to protest, Munoz added.

After attorneys played footage of Munoz’s arrest, Bovino repeatedly denied during the deposition that he tackled “an older gentleman” in the video and dodged questions on whether he used force.

Bovino acknowledged that he made physical contact with the man, but denied that he applied force, saying it was not “reportable use of force.”

Excessive force claims dog ICE agents

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis has already ordered agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot-control techniques, such as tear gas, against peaceful protesters and journalists. After repeatedly chastising federal officials for not following her previous orders, she added a requirement for body cameras.

Ellis will weigh how to respond to allegations that federal immigration agents in the Chicago area have used excessive force, following a surge of recent court filings detailing tense encounters between agents and residents.

Craig Futterman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, noted recent examples of agents using tear gas on Chicago-area residents, including at a Halloween parade and outside a grocery store. He said Bovino, himself, has been filmed throwing tear gas canisters at protesters. A video of Bovino throwing a canister was played during Wednesday’s hearing.

Justice Department lawyer Sarmad Khojasteh accused many protesters of threatening to kill law enforcement officers, impeding their duties and throwing rocks and other objects at agents.

“Such conduct must be rejected,” he said. “To what extent does the freedom of speech protect individuals in obstructing and/or threatening conduct — throwing rocks, bottles, fireworks, surrounding and pinning down law enforcement officials?”

But witnesses say the actions by agents have been unprovoked.

Witnesses say ICE actions not called for

Leslie Cortez, a youth organizer, said she was recording and explaining rights in Spanish to day laborers being arrested by ICE agents outside a Home Depot when one agent pointed a gun at her.

“I could see inside the barrel,” Cortez testified. “My heart accelerated. I was nervous they were going to shoot.”

Chicago Newspaper Guild Executive Director Emily Steelhammer took the stand, recounting how members of the union said they were hit with rubber bullets, pepper balls and chemical weapons, including tear gas. The incidents mostly occurred in Broadview, but also took place at other Chicago-area demonstrations, she said.

In his deposition, Bovino denied allegations of excessive use of force, saying, “I have not seen our men or women deploy force against protesters.”

Wednesday’s hearing follows Ellis’ questioning of Bovino at a public hearing last week, where she took the rare step of ordering him to brief her each evening on the federal immigration crackdown in Chicago. That move was swiftly blocked by an appeals court.

Christine Fernando, The Associated Press