FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 15, 2021
Government Accountability Project Urges Congress, DHS Secretary Mayorkas to End ICE’s Use of Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention
OIG Audit Validates Whistleblower’s Seven Year Battle to End Torture of Medically Vulnerable and Mentally Ill Immigrant Detainees
WASHINGTON— Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has long subjected countless immigrants detained in ICE detention facilities to solitary confinement, a practice that is largely invisible to the public, but which has been defined as torture by the United Nations and other reputable human rights bodies. The incredible harm of solitary confinement on detained individuals – especially those who are medically or mentally vulnerable – are well documented and both ICE and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas have long been on notice of its impact.
Government Accountability Project’s whistleblowing client Ellen Gallagher, formerly with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), sounded the alarm bells internally around solitary confinement numerous times starting in 2014. Gallagher raised her concerns repeatedly within the department, including to then-Deputy Secretary Mayorkas, after reviewing hundreds of ICE reports on solitary confinement — many prolonged over multiple days and months — across dozens of facilities, and in direct violation of federal regulations and statutory mandates.
Ms. Gallagher’s pleas for oversight were largely met with silence until she made her whistleblowing public in 2019. Now, seven years after the department was made aware of ICE’s systematic violation of segregation policies, the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) finally completed a systemic audit and on October 13, 2021, issued a report that validated Ms. Gallagher’s disclosures, finding failures by ICE to collect, retain and report data about its use of solitary confinement and calling for enhanced oversight of segregation used in ICE detention facilities. While the OIG report revealed many of ICE’s shortcomings, there is no way of knowing how many and to what extent immigrants were subjected to solitary confinement over the past seven years in ICE detention.
On November 16, 2021, Secretary Mayorkas is slated to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing titled “Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security,” where he will be questioned on a range of issues affecting DHS including systemic challenges within the ICE detention system.
In a Statement for the Record submitted in advance of the hearing, Government Accountability Project urges the Senate Judiciary Committee to question Secretary Mayorkas on ICE’s longstanding and abusive use of solitary confinement on detained immigrants. Secretary Mayorkas has been on notice of this systemic problem for seven years further confirmed by the recent OIG report.
In the Statement for the Record, Dana Gold, Government Accountability Project Senior Counsel, and attorney for Ellen Gallagher, stated:
“We applaud the DHS Inspector General’s report which provides a necessary, though delayed, data-informed survey of the use of solitary confinement within the ICE detention system. Secretary Mayorkas – then, as now – is on notice of the improper and excessive use of solitary confinement. What is needed at this moment is accountability for seven years of failed oversight that allowed torture to occur across the ICE detention system in literally unverifiable numbers. That accountability must start with immediately ending the practice of segregation in ICE detention until compliance with standards to protect immigrant detainees can be guaranteed.”
Read the full written statement submitted to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s hearing on Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security by Government Accountability Project’s Senior Counsel Dana Gold here.
Contact: Andrew Harman, Communications Director
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (202) 926-3304
Government Accountability Project
Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, Government Accountability Project’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, Government Accountability Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
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