America's Secret ICE Castles
Friday, December 25, 2009 at 08:35AM "If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear." Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008. Also present was Amnesty International's Sarnata Reynolds, who wrote about the incident in the 2009 report "Jailed Without Justice" and said in an interview, "It was almost surreal being there, particularly being someone from an organization that has worked on disappearances for decades in other countries. I couldn't believe he would say it so boldly, as though it weren't anything wrong."
Pendergraph knew that ICE could disappear people, because he knew that in addition to the publicly listed field offices and detention sites, ICE is also confining people in 186 unlisted and unmarked subfield offices, many in suburban office parks or commercial spaces revealing no information about their ICE tenants--nary a sign, a marked car or even a US flag. (Presumably there is a flag at the Veterans Affairs Complex in Castle Point, New York, but no one would associate it with the Criminal Alien Program ICE is running out of Building 7.) Designed for confining individuals in transit, with no beds or showers, subfield offices are not subject to ICE Detention Standards. The subfield office network was mentioned in an October report by Dora Schriro, then special adviser to Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, but no locations were provided.
Reader Comments (1)
My wife and I have read this article five times now, and each time I have tears flowing down my cheeks. After four years of trying to get the attention of someone/anyone and being called a liar.
When i was finally put in the general population in Tensas, Lousiana, and I mentioned the torture I went through, the comments of the fellow inmates was that I must be on drugs thinking that the US and ICE would torture someone.
At this point our lives are in dire straights and in danger for our lives on a daily basis!
Now finally after years of dealing with the PTSD and dealing with the scar, at least someone is investigating these gulags and bringing them to world attention. Maybe... just maybe (I don't have much hope)... I will get justice and a chance to rebuild my life again, due to the efforts of people like Ms. Stevens.
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