Federal Investigation Launched into Immigrant Detention Centers in Nevada
The federal government received 61 complaints in 2023 regarding the conditions at two immigrant detention centers in Nevada. One individual detained at an immigrant detention center in Nevada reported being denied medication before experiencing a seizure. Additionally, for three days, they were left on the floor of their cell without soap, a toilet, or proper toilet paper, according to a federal complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
These complaints were among the 61 filed by detainees in 2023 with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, prompting a federal investigation into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in Nevada earlier this year. The Southern Nevada Detention Center in Pahrump received 36 complaints of medical negligence, racial discrimination, and verbal abuse. The Nye County Detention Center faced 25 complaints.
Numerous complaints highlighted issues with detainees accessing healthcare services, ranging from being ignored by medical staff to a patient receiving an accidental insulin injection. ICE policy mandates that facilities provide comprehensive medical and mental health care to non-citizens from the moment of their arrival.
Detainees also reported verbal abuse, communication barriers with ICE staff due to language differences, and systematic denial of access to legal services. The complaints, drafted to protect the detainees’ identities, indicated that investigations at the facilities would review conditions, staff communication, and medical and mental healthcare.
As of February, when the DHS announced the inquiry, investigators have not publicly disclosed any updates. ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment from The Nevada Independent. Freedom for Immigrants, an organization that assisted several detainees in filing complaints, reported no updates since March.
“There is no real independent oversight of these detention centers, which operate as prisons,” said Amanda Diaz, Freedom for Immigrants’ organizing director. “The DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties can investigate these complaints on its own, but we see that most are not investigated. It’s like ICE investigating ICE.”
Eleven of the 18 complaints were related to lack of medical attention and access to an adequate amount of food and clean water. “There is a significant risk of retaliation when people report complaints,” Diaz stated. “ICE has used fear tactics from its inception to prevent individuals from filing complaints and revealing what is happening inside immigrant detention centers.”
According to the complainants, a significant language barrier between officials and detainees exacerbates what many describe as a discriminatory and racist environment.
History of Complaints
Last year, several advocacy groups in Nevada, including the UNLV Immigration Clinic and Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center, filed complaints alleging racial mistreatment of detainees in ICE facilities, including medical negligence and denial of adequate legal services.
After multiple medical complaints, Erik Mercado, an ICE detainee, was transferred to a Nevada holding facility and reported sleeping next to a urinal due to overcrowding. Freedom for Immigrants reported that Mercado remains in custody. Last year, Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center and Freedom for Immigrants pointed out that these incidents are part of a broader pattern of racism, citing the 2020 case where a captain at the Southern Nevada Detention Center was dismissed for ties to a neo-Nazi group.
The oversight process can be even more complex for private companies like CoreCivic, which manages the Southern Nevada Detention Center and has a “profit incentive” to keep detainees. Diaz mentioned that CoreCivic, which earned $552.2 million from its ICE detention contracts in 2022, conducts internal audits available on its website indicating compliance with standards at the Southern Nevada Detention Center.
Public officials, including Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, have repeatedly called for a review of ICE detention centers in Nevada. In September 2020, Cortez Masto visited the Southern Nevada Detention Center after 25 detainees sued the facility over pandemic concerns and living conditions.
