{"id":65133,"date":"2025-04-15T16:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T23:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=65133"},"modified":"2025-04-16T18:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T01:55:08","slug":"ice-fci-dublin-immigrant-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/ice-fci-dublin-immigrant-detention\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE eyes takeover of toxic, scandal-plagued Bay Area prison for immigrant detention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All signs point to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) preparing to take over a shuttered Bay Area women\u2019s prison to house immigrant detainees \u2014 despite toxic living conditions and a documented history of abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal Correctional Institution Dublin (FCI Dublin), located an hour from San Francisco, was closed in April 2024 following lawsuits, whistleblower reports and inspections that revealed rampant sexual violence, mold, asbestos and sewage leaks. The prison was so notorious that it was dubbed the \u201crape club\u201d by both the incarcerated women and by BOP staffers working at the prison and across the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lea esta historia en espa\u00f1ol.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, despite its dangerous condition and horrific legacy, ICE appears to be eyeing the facility for renewed use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal document dated August 14, 2024, shows that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a request <\/a>for information to help \u201cidentify possible detention facilities to house noncitizens and immigration violators\u201d within a two-hour commute of ICE field offices, including the San Francisco office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is no public contract between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for FCI Dublin yet, Bay Area advocates cite this request as well as a pattern of increased collaboration between the two agencies as the basis for their fears that ICE will reopen the prison. A Memorandum of Understanding<\/a> ensures maximum cooperation, and several other federal prisons \u2014 including FCI Miami, FCI Atlanta, and FCI Philadelphia \u2014 have recently been contracted out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for ICE use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An aerial view of the front of Federal Correctional Institution Dublin, a federal women\u2019s prison located in the Bay Area. Photo: Jesstess87, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The BOP has a record of working with ICE to house immigrant detainees in already overcrowded facilities. In 2018, ICE began detaining hundreds of immigrants at Victorville Federal Prison in California<\/a>, over the objections of prison staff. Many BOP employees remain opposed to such arrangements, citing chronic understaffing, lack of training to work with migrants, reneging on financial promises, and personal moral objections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to one union member, who asked to remain anonymous, ICE uses federal prisons \u201cas a way around certain obligations they have to detainees. Once you throw a detainee into a prison, they have to operate under the prison system \u2026 and that changes everything as far as what the needs are for those detainees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If ICE takes over FCI Dublin, it is likely the agency will contract operations out to a third-party, private prison company. A 2024 ACLU report titled \u201cResistance, Retaliation, Repression<\/a>\u201d notes that all six ICE detention centers in California are operated by for-profit contractors. Since launching its California Immigrant Detention Database<\/a> in 2023, the ACLU has received 485 abuse complaints from detainees housed in these centers, including reports of hazardous conditions, medical neglect and retaliation for speaking out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One former detainee, Jos\u00e9 Rub\u00e9n Hern\u00e1ndez Gomez, spent more than a year in ICE custody, shuffled between facilities before arriving at the Golden State Annex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by @sfpublicdefender<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>