No sign ICE is improving conditions at S.F. immigrant holding cells, attorneys say

"Nearly a month after a federal court issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Department of Justice to immediately provide mattresses, blankets, medical care and other basic necessities to immigrants detained at its at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco, there is little sign that ICE is complying with the order, according to the legal group that won the injunction. Instead, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have blocked repeated attempts to assess the well-being of those detained at the ICE facility, which takes immigrants arrested across the Bay Area and further afield, according to lead attorney Marissa Hatton."

"Last week, for example, Department of Homeland Security attorney Doug Johns invited Hatton and her co-counsel to visit 630 Sansome and "see what is going on for ourselves," said co-counsel Lo Darian. They did, and Mission Local witnessed ICE agents denying Hatton and Darien entry to the building on Dec. 18 even after they presented identification and showed them email correspondence with Johns inviting them up to the fifth floor."

"Judge Pitts' Nov. 25 order had found an "established likelihood" that the "conditions at 630 Sansome are unconstitutionally punitive in nature." He ordered ICE to give detained immigrants beds, bedding, medical care, hygiene products, and clean clothes, among other things. He told the agency it must make temperatures inside the holding cells tolerable - those inside said they were "freezing" - and to provide medicine and dim the lights at night."

A federal court issued a preliminary injunction requiring mattresses, blankets, medical care and other necessities for immigrants detained at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco. ICE has shown little sign of compliance and has blocked repeated attempts to assess detainee well-being. DHS counsel invited attorneys to inspect the facility, but attorneys were denied entry despite identification and email invitations. The court found an "established likelihood" that conditions at 630 Sansome are unconstitutionally punitive and ordered beds, bedding, medical care, hygiene items, tolerable temperatures, medicine and dimmed lights at night. Attorneys report being stonewalled on information.

Read at Mission Local