Records show California prisons are reporting U.S. citizens to ICE, ACLU says

On Aug. 18, 2022, a data division worker on the California Correctional Middle emailed federal immigration authorities a listing of individuals they believed might be topic to deportation. The listing famous that the majority of these named had been born outdoors the U.S. or had an unknown birthplace. However 12 folks had been listed as having been born on this nation.

That e mail was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and shared with The Occasions. The advocacy group says California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation workers routinely assume folks of their custody are deportable immigrants — even when their very own data point out they’re U.S. residents or immigrants who shouldn’t be deported — and report these people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement whereas denying them rehabilitation alternatives.

The data stem from a public data request filed final 12 months by the ACLU NorCal, which sought communications between the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR, and ICE. The ACLU and different advocacy teams mentioned they analyzed about 2,500 distinctive data from August and September 2022, throughout which the company transferred greater than 200 folks from CDCR amenities to immigration custody.

The teams detailed the ends in a report back to be printed Tuesday that they are saying describes the practices employed by CDCR in cooperation with ICE and gives examples of alleged actions by division workers which can be discriminatory, together with towards immigrants.

“Of their zeal to collude with ICE, CDCR shouldn’t be solely focusing on individuals who have served their time and are set to return dwelling for detention and deportation however can be sweeping up U.S. residents and Inexperienced Card holders, counting on racist assumptions and ignoring their very own data,” the report states.

ICE didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s workplace referred questions from The Occasions to CDCR.

CDCR spokesperson Terri Hardy mentioned the division is working to restrict communications with ICE to solely when somebody enters jail and when their launch date is approaching. Hardy mentioned CDCR inquires with ICE for an official dedication if workers can’t decide a person’s fatherland or if info signifies that the individual might be an immigrant.

The report follows a lawsuit filed by the ACLU NorCal and former prisoners that alleged related points to these described within the data. In a single instance described within the swimsuit, a girl born in California to Cambodian immigrants was referred to ICE as a result of state jail officers wrongly perceived her to be a Mexican immigrant.

Information from the report seem to point out some prisons have an “ICE Desk” with workers designated to facilitate referrals of incarcerated folks to federal authorities.

Based on the report, if a CDCR official perceives somebody to be international born, that triggers a “potential” maintain at consumption — an inside designation established in CDCR’s operations handbook. As soon as somebody is marked with a possible maintain, they’re barred from decrease safety custody placements, sure jobs and reentry programming.

Hardy mentioned CDCR is engaged on rules that will enable incarcerated folks with ICE holds to be positioned in much less restrictive housing primarily based on their conduct and program participation.

CDCR workers commonly put collectively “ICE packets” containing background info and prison data of an individual they consider might be transferred to ICE custody, in response to the report. Advocates mentioned ICE usually doesn’t start investigating till an individual’s earliest potential launch date nears, generally with solely days to spare. If ICE believes that individual is topic to deportation, CDCR points an “precise” maintain to point out ICE’s intent to arrest the individual upon their launch, in response to CDCR’s operations handbook.

ICE has detained and even deported U.S. residents. Final 12 months, Asian People Advancing Justice — Asian Legislation Caucus and ACLU NorCal settled a lawsuit with ICE over the illegal detention of a U.S. citizen, Brian Bukle, who had been referred to the company by CDCR. Bukle repeatedly advised ICE brokers that he was a U.S. citizen whereas detained for 36 days at Mesa Verde ICE Processing Middle in Bakersfield earlier than an immigration legal professional intervened and secured his launch.

Sana Singh of the ACLU NorCal mentioned they’ve been reviewing data since February and anticipate to obtain hundreds extra pages of data within the coming months.

“What’s mirrored in these data is CDCR participating in formalized discrimination,” she mentioned. “We felt it was price sharing now even earlier than we get the total universe of data.”

Paperwork obtained by the ACLU NorCal confirmed CDCR workers referred folks to ICE regardless of the state’s personal data exhibiting the individual was a U.S. citizen. In a single e mail, a case report technician at Avenal State Jail referred somebody to ICE whose data indicated he was born in California. The technician joked in an e mail to ICE brokers inquiring about his authorized standing, “Ought to we simply put US citizen on a bit of paper fold it up and put it in a hat, after which write on one other piece of paper Mexican, fold it up and likewise throw that within the hat and decide one.”

In response to a query in regards to the incident, Hardy mentioned, “The e-mail communication between a former CDCR worker at Avenal State Jail and ICE is unacceptable, and never according to expectations for a way our workers talk and work with different legislation enforcement companies.

“We’re working to make sure our workers is correctly educated and knowledgeable when coping with a majority of these circumstances,” Hardy mentioned. CDCR didn’t reply to different questions from The Occasions.

In one other e mail, despatched by a correctional case data supervisor at San Quentin State Jail to an ICE deportation officer 11 days earlier than a prisoner was scheduled for launch, the supervisor mentioned the inmate’s data indicated he was born in California.

However, the supervisor wrote, “He was not; he was born in Mexico.”

“Could I ask what leads you to consider he was born in Mexico?” the ICE agent requested in response.

“His Probation Officer’s Report, in addition to the data collected by the advisors when first obtained in jail, all state he was born in Mexico,” the supervisor replied. “I used to be tipped off whereas reviewing his parole audit … that he doesn’t communicate English.”

Most individuals on lists despatched by CDCR to ICE whose birthplace is listed because the U.S. had non-Ango-Saxon names, in response to the report. ICE commonly despatched again types indicating that the individual CDCR had referred couldn’t be deported, Singh mentioned.

CDCR staff ask ICE if it wish to decide up a prisoner even with out prompting from federal authorities, the data present, and have repeatedly adopted up when brokers didn’t reply. Generally, state officers held inmates past their launch dates to confirm if ICE needed to arrest them, in response to the report.

Hardy mentioned CDCR doesn’t, and can’t by legislation, maintain incarcerated folks previous their launch dates.

A case data technician at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility indicated in a single e mail that they’d await a response from ICE earlier than signing off on a prisoner’s parole.

In one other occasion, a case data technician at Chuckwalla Valley State Jail mentioned a prisoner had declined to talk with ICE. Even so, the technician requested an ICE agent, “Do you continue to need to set an interview for him?” That seems to be in battle with California legislation stating that such interviews are voluntary.

Ny Nourn, co-director of Asian Prisoner Help Committee, remembers being disqualified from a firefighting job and a cable wire harness manufacturing job due to her ICE maintain. Throughout her annual jail opinions, officers would inform her she was doing nicely — she mentioned she obtained no write-ups or violations — however reminded her of the maintain. Norn, a inexperienced card holder born in Thailand to Cambodian refugees, was incarcerated for 16 years for her position in a homicide dedicated by her former accomplice, who she mentioned abused her, earlier than being pardoned by Newsom.

After being launched from the Central California Ladies’s Facility in 2017, Nourn spent six months combating deportation.

“There’s many immigrants like me who’ve been transferred over to ICE,” she mentioned. “CDCR shouldn’t be about rehabilitation.”

She and different advocates are calling for California legislators to advance the HOME Act, which might block transfers of sure incarcerated folks to ICE detention. Lawmakers rejected a predecessor of that invoice final 12 months.

Assemblymember Wendy Carillo (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the invoice, mentioned the paperwork obtained by the ACLU NorCal present clear bias that requires the Legislature to demand accountability.

“In actively collaborating with ICE and with their very own discriminatory language and actions, CDCR has betrayed the general public’s belief and their very own mission to facilitate the profitable reentry of people of their care,” she mentioned.