The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class action lawsuit against Otay Mesa, an immigration jailhouse in San Diego. The complaint was filed due to the overcrowded and unsafe conditions of the immigration detainees who are crammed three to a cell in cramped cells built for two.
David Blair-Loy, legal director for the local ACLU said that the facility is basically stuffing people like sardines in tiny cells. The Union also contends that people being held for immigration violations, which are violations of civil laws and not criminal laws, are constitutionally entitled to better conditions than criminal defendants.
The main motivation of the class action lawsuit if to change the present system employed in the immigration facility, curing the inhumane conditions, which are tormenting detainees at present.
There are about 1,000 people detained in the facility. Most are asylum seekers who try to stay in the country for fear of persecution if returned to their home country. Others have been waiting for months or years for their immigration papers to be cleared in courts.
ACLU sighs at the facility’s practice of putting three detainees in 12-foot by 6-foot cells that are originally designed for two. Others have to sleep in beds on the floor of the common room due to overcrowding. This current situation is said to be a violation to what the courts have held that people detained under civil law violations have to be held in conditions that are superior to people under criminal laws.
The overcrowding has caused increased tensions inside the facility. The suit detailed that commotion transpired in September when a group of detainees were abruptly tear-gassed and pepper sprayed by guards when they wanted to speak to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials about the triple-celling.