After nearly 3 years of using the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, NM as the primary detention center for transgender women, ICE appears to be in the process of closing the unit and transferring all of the women to other detention centers in the U.S.
This unit for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals opened in 2017 after advocates effectively shut down trans-detention in Santa Ana, CA. Since 2017, Cibola County has housed over 200 women, despite it coming under constant fire for failing to meet the appropriate standards of care for transgender women. Medical neglect, lack of mental health services, poor conditions of detention, and abuse of solitary confinement was rampant at Cibola. The most horrific result of ICE’s failure to sufficiently care for this population was the death of Roxsana Hernandez in May of 2018. ICE and Core Civic, the private prison corporation that runs Cibola County, continually showed that they were incapable of detaining trangender women safely, making an extremely strong case for the national movement to end trans detention.
Santa Fe Dreamers Project, along with local and national partners, have represented hundreds of women detained in Cibola since its opening. We assisted women to pass their credible fear interviews, win their asylum claims, and be liberated from detention with grants of bond or parole. We worked with national partners to hold ICE and Core Civic accountable for their treatment of trans detainees and continue the fight to end the detention of all LGBTQ individuals.
Last week, without warning, ICE transferred half of the trans population from Cibola to Aurora, Colorado. Days later, they transferred the second half of the group to Tacoma, Washington via a detention center in Florence, AZ. Santa Fe Dreamers Project is currently working with legal service providers in both locations to ensure a continuity of legal services, including requests for immediate release and legal representation in the event those requests are denied. We are also working with national and local organizers, as well as Congressional representatives, to elevate this situation and bring greater awareness to the goals of ending all trans detention.
As Santa Fe Dreamers Project’s attorney Charlie Flewelling explains, “this is not the first time that ICE has closed a migrant detention facility. A pattern has emerged - ICE contracts with a private prison company to open a detention facility, the local community works diligently to get the resources in place to support the detained migrants and challenge the conditions of detention. Once the legal representation and community support are in place, together with credible depictions of unsanitary and dangerous conditions being brought to light, ICE cancels the contract and moves detainees to a new facility. While ICE may view this as a game of cat and mouse two things are clear; people are dying while detained - it is not a game, and our capacity to support community defense efforts grows with each move. The knowledge and skills we build are not lost, and we will continue to simultaneously support those who are detained while pushing for abolition of immigrant detention and ICE.”
Thank you to all of our friends and supporters who have made this fight in New Mexico possible. We look forward to continuing the fight to END TRANS DETENTION with you!
