The CoreCivic ICE California City Center is just one facility accused of using immigrant detainees for forced labor. According to a January 2019 New York Times opinion article, there are over 200 institutions where close to 50,000 immigrants are believed to be held pending status decisions. Around 132 of those institutions are managed by for-profit private companies contracted through the federal government of the U.S.

One feature of these facilities is the Voluntary Work Program. This program, as indicated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and TruthOut.org, is purportedly instituted to allow detainees to be ‘gainfully occupied’ while their immigration case awaits adjudication.

The problem with this is that the CoreCivic ICE California City Center and other institutions potentially housing immigrants are seemingly being allowed to pay detainee workers just $1 a day. The for-profit management agencies are allegedly getting meals prepared, facilities cleaned, and many other necessary maintenance duties accomplished in this way and raking in high profits at the expense of detainees.

While it has not been determined if all of these institutions below hold detained immigrants, California-based facilities that are suspected of using forced labor include:

• CoreCivic ICE California City Center for Corrections (California City, CA)
• Otay Mesa Detention Center (San Diego, CA)
• San Diego Correctional Facility (San Diego, CA)

The Voluntary Work Program has been the subject of several recent lawsuits filed by former detainees. According to these lawsuits, several plaintiffs have claimed that there was little that was volunteer about the Voluntary Work Program. If they declined to participate, they were more often than not threatened and punished.

The See but Don’t Speak Rule

According to a Nov. 5, 2018 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, oversight for detainee treatment in these for-profit detention centers is lacking, save for volunteer civic groups which offer visitation and emotional support for immigrants involved in the system.

A recent action taken by ICE has refused entry to one large civic group known as Souls Offering Loving and Compassionate Ears (SOLACE) pending the signage of a contract in which volunteers must not speak of interior conditions.

Referred to as the ‘Volunteer Code of Ethics’—as indicated by the Union-Tribune—the form requires that no volunteer discuss or deliver information regarding what is seen or heard inside the facility to media outlets or other contacts without written permission from internal authorities.

The ‘signing away of first amendment rights’ was a problem for SOLACE who had not complied with the contract request as of the publication date of the report. While volunteers had fully complied with other aspects of registration such as background checks, offering forms of identification with pictures and social security numbers, the clause of confidentiality was an over-the-top blow with no seeming precedent.

Of concern to this and other visiting volunteer groups is how much hate-based abuse, forced labor, and other questionable activity might be occurring with impunity.

This purportedly isn’t the first time this has occurred. As indicated in a Mother Jones article from 2014, SOLACE warned ICE about purported sexual crimes of abuse and harassment as well as generalized neglect at Otay Detention facility five years ago. ICE failed to work with the organization then and merely blocked their access.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.