Two legal organizations say immigrant detainees at a Michigan processing facility are being denied medical care and access to legal representation.
The North Lake Processing Center near Baldwin is operated by the GEO Group, a private, for-profit company. About 1,400 immigrants were being held in the facility as of April, according to data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“ICE is falling far short of the constitutional requirements that bind it to ensure both medical care and legal access,” wrote the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and the ACLU of Michigan in a letter addressed the director of ICE's Detroit field office, Kevin Raycraft.
Though North Lake is operated by GEO Group through a contract, detainees are still held under ICE custody.
MIRC and the ACLU of Michigan alleged in the letter this week numerous instances of detainees being denied medical care at North Lake.
That includes:
- A woman who had a “hypertensive emergency” after not being given her prescription for high blood pressure.
- A woman who requested a mammogram seven times after finding a lump on her breast. The ACLU and MIRC claim she never received a mammogram while at North Lake.
- A man who was found in his cell “crying, shaking, and unable to walk” after not receiving insulin.
- A man with epilepsy who experienced a seizure after “not receiving his medication in a timely manner.”
- A man who had two seizures and received no medical followup.
- A man who became “non-verbal” after not receiving adequate mental health care.
The letter said others also didn’t receive adequate followup after experiencing medical episodes at North Lake. And it claims detainees have been told to pay for medications themselves, which MIRC and the ACLU of Michigan said is a violation of ICE policy.
The letter came after one person died in custody at North Lake last year. In a visit to the facility in February, two of Michigan’s congressional representatives said they still hadn’t gotten answers to why Nenko Gantchev died.
ICE’s public affairs office referred Michigan Public to the organization’s Office of Partnership and Engagement for comment on the MIRC and ACLU accusations. After submitting a form online, Michigan Public received an email response that read: “Your request has been received. Please allow 2-3 days for follow-up.”
Michigan Public also reached out to the ICE Detroit field office via email, but did not receive a response.
The company running the processing center did respond.
“GEO strongly disagrees with these allegations, which are part of a long-standing, politically motivated, and radical campaign to attack ICE’s contractors, abolish ICE, and end federal immigration detention by proxy,” a GEO Group spokesperson wrote in answer to the allegations.
“The support services GEO provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs,” the statement continued. “Additionally, all of GEO’s ICE Processing Centers are independently accredited by the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.”
In addition to the claims of inadequate medical care, MIRC and the ACLU of Michigan also alleged North Lake has not ensured that detainees have access to sufficient legal representation.
They said attorneys visiting North Lake have been turned away at times because of “arbitrary” dress code enforcement. In one instance, a female attorney was told she must remove her underwire bra before entering the facility.
The letter also said detainees aren’t provided with a private space where they can speak to attorneys without being overheard.
And, they alleged, detainees have missed crucial court hearings while in detention.
“The whole purpose of detention is supposedly to ensure people show up for their hearings,” said attorney Ruby Robinson during the virtual press conference Thursday. “Yet we’ve had clients not receive notices of their scheduled hearings. And our staff have observed hearings where multiple individuals from North Lake were not in attendance when the judge called their cases.”
The ACLU and MIRC submitted a list of 13 changes they want to see at North Lake to improve medical care and legal representation. They asked for a response by May 29.
Attorneys said they sent the letter to prod ICE to make the changes quickly, without waiting for a judge to rule on a lawsuit.
“We’ll just continue to use all the tools we have in our toolbox to ensure that people at North Lake are receiving the care they need, that they’re receiving access to counsel,” said Ewurama Appiagyei-Dankah, West Michigan legal fellow for the ACLU of Michigan.
MIRC and the ACLU of Michigan withheld the names of detainees mentioned in the letter because, they said, they feared retaliation for those who spoke out.
But on the virtual press conference, they included the mother of the detainee who they said became non-verbal while at North Lake.
“I’m here because I want to be the voice of my son who cannot speak,” the mother, who was identified only by the name Heydi. She spoke in Spanish through interpreter Elizabeth Dannenfelser.
“I beg that you see my son with humanity, that you see behind this case is a young man who was completely destroyed emotionally,” she said.
