DENVER -- Immigration advocacy groups allege abuse of solitary confinement and discrimination against people with disabilities at the Aurora, Colorado, immigration detention center in a complaint submitted Thursday to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s oversight entities.
Immigrant detainees reported solitary confinement being used wrongfully and arbitrarily as punishment, that guards frequently used the threat of solitary to control immigrants, and that those with disabilities were mistreated.
The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, the American Immigration Council and the National Immigration Project for the National Lawyers Guild detailed accusations of eight people who have been pending immigration cases and were or are still detained. They called for the Aurora facility’s immediate closure. Until that happens, they wrote, the federal agencies should launch an investigation into their claims and recommend systemic reforms and corrective actions.
