CLEVELAND, OHIO - A new federal rule is expected to be implemented this year to protect imprisoned people in immigration detention centers despite some Homeland Security officials' efforts to exclude them.
About 200 sexual abuse complaints were filed with the federal government within the past five years by immigration detainees seeking prison rape protection.
An ACLU official said the number is under-reported because many detainees cannot report the abuse since they do not speak or read English well, or know their legal rights while in the U.S. There was an account of an immigrant detainee awaiting deportation to India who was sexually abused by three gang members at an Illinois facility where he was detained.
Although the man came to the U.S. on a work visa, he was taken into federal custody at his workplace by immigration officials after he overstayed the visa. He ended up spending many years behind bars and being abused repeatedly.
Although he was eventually released when he got an immigration lawyer, he is still fighting to remain in the U.S. with his American wife and kids, and get a visa available to victims of crime.
Orlando immigration attorney Jonathan A. Bartell is working on a similar case involving a man who was abused while he was detained after he was caught by immigration officials. The man is in the U.S. illegally.
"While in detention, he was severely beaten by another inmate," says Bartell. "This inmate was in jail for a criminal violation, yet he was being held in the same area as the non-criminal immigration inmates."
Bartell, a citizenship attorney, says he will attempt to get the client a green card as a victim of crime. The waiver attorney who is also an EB5 lawyer works on a variety of immigration and criminal cases for non-citizens.
"My goal is to protect people," said the fiance visa attorney of his efforts to represent those in immigration detention centers.
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