Hunger Strike

MILAN, N.M.– The Cibola County Correctional Center is once again in hot water for the alleged mistreatment of immigrant detainees. CCCC is a facility which houses local Cibola County inmates, US Marshal Service inmates, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement inmates. Most of the ICE inmates at CCCC are asylum seekers, meaning they have committed no crime other than crossing the border without permission and are being held while they await a hearing with the US federal courts to get permission to stay in the United States. The ICE side of CCCC has had inmates on a hunger strike since October 18, refusing to eat until they receive adequate medical care from the staff.

Representatives for CoreCivic – the company that owns CCCC, and representatives for ICE say that there is no hunger strike at the facility.

Hunger Strike

Immigrants at CCCC have allowed their legal representatives to release a letter they wrote and signed detailing mistreatment

at the detention center. Copies of this letter – written entirely in Spanish – can be picked up at the Cibola Citizen office at 200 W. Santa Fe Avenue.

The New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center released a letter written by detainees at CCCC which details a list of alleged abuses and failures to care for the detained immigrants at the Cibola facility.

According to allegations by NMILC, Las Americas, and the letter from detained immigrants, one immigrant detainee attempted to commit suicide on October 18. The unnamed inmate’s suicide attempt caught attention from other detainees in the ICE side of the facility and prompted them to protest for better care and treatment. What started as a small, isolated protest of 20 men, has increased to include at least 25 detainees.

Detainees at CCCC allege a pattern of mistreatment at the facility. In the letter, detainees allege a racist neglect from the facility that led to their cellmate’s attempted suicide. Psychological damage from mistreatment, and an unfair detention when most of the inmates in the facility have committed no crime other than crossing the border are mentioned in the detainee’s letter. The detainees say CCCC has a limited number of doctors and staff, which mean it could take minutes before correctional officers arrive to help in a situation.

The detainees are calling on CoreCivic, the state of New Mexico and the US Federal Government to close CCCC and release all detainees who are not criminals and pose no threat to American life.

“We need help urgently; we will not wait for one of us to die here. We request our release. Please help us. Thank you and may God bless you,” the letter from the detainees reads.

What is a Hunger Strike?

The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

published an article called

Characteristics of Inmates Who Initiate Hunger Strikes by Rusty Reeves, Anthony C. Tamburello, Jennifer Platt, Drew Tepper and Kerri Edelman. This publication classifies a “Hunger Strike” as any intentional fasting of more than 72 hours.

According to NMILC, strikers at CCCC have been fasting since October 18 in protest, officially classifying this situation as a “Hunger Strike”.

Denying the Allegations

CoreCivic Director of Public Affairs Ryan Gustin said, “The situations … regarding our Cibola County Correctional Center are neither accurate nor reflective of our policies, procedures or values. As of November 16, there has been no hunger strike at [Cibola County Correctional Center].”

ICE Public Affairs Official Leticia Zamarripa wrote in a November 18 email to the Cibola Citizen, “There is no hunger strike at the Cibola County Correctional Center. Allegations and published accounts reporting the contrary, are inaccurate.”

Official accounts from CoreCivic and ICE do not give specifics or any details to back up their denials of these allegations.

When asked about the allegations of the facility being sub-par, Gustin of CoreCivic said, “All of our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they’re required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living for all detainees … Our staff are trained and held to the highest ethical standards.” Gustin went on to say, “We vehemently deny any allegations of detainee mistreatment.”

A History of Neglect

The Cibola County Correctional Center is no stranger to allegations of abuse and lawsuits regarding the ICE detainees.

An investigation by Reuters in 2020 found hundreds of unanswered medical requests in the ICE portion of Cibola County Correctional Center. These preceded the most recent incident where one ICE detainee at the facility was allegedly made to walk with a broken ankle without receiving medical care until, when the facility tried deporting the detainee, the country of origin refused to accept the detainee until he could get medical care for his ankle. (See the August 31, 2022 edition of the Cibola Citizen.)

CCCC has made international news. In 2018, an immigrant transgender detainee died at the facility after she alleged abuse from the security staff. There is a long history of neglect in the ICE pods at CCCC.

“It has been repeatedly reported by survivors of detention that human rights abuses run rampant at Cibola,” Las Americas said in a statement on November 17. “Earlier this year, several high-risk detained persons have spoken up about the medical neglect and discrimination suffered.” The statement goes on to read, “It is clear that medical abuse, racism and immigration are intrinsically linked in this system and, if unresolved, they will have extreme adverse consequences.”