Protest Targets Immigrant Detention Facility

New Haven immigrant-rights activists have joined fellow groups nationwide in calling for defunding of a Massachusetts detention facility where local immigrants are being detained — and, they said, abused.

Members of the local group, Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), demonstrated Wednesday outside the Elm Street office of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and then arranged a Thursday meeting with her staffer Lou Mangini, to discuss the defunding demand.

The demand centers on the Bristol County Detention Center in North Dartmouth, Mass., run since 1997 by Sheriff Thomas Hodsgon. The facility has been the subject of numerous complaints, protest actions, and a class-action lawsuit that led a judge to release 50 inmates. (Click here for a recent WBUR report about a May 1 protest within the facility and reports of assaults and retaliatory measures taken in the facility, along with defenses against the allegations by the sheriff.)

Over 50 Connecticut and Massachusetts groups this week have now signed a letter calling on the federal Department of Homeland Security to stop funding the detention of inmates at the facility

DeLauro aide Mangini (pictured) came out to speak with protesters Wednesday about 15 minutes after they started protesting Wednesday outside the 59 Elm St. office building (which includes DeLauro’s suite) and ULA organizer John Lugo sent up a request for a meeting. DeLauro was in Congress working on the FY21 budget. Mangini and Lugo set up a follow-up Zoom meeting for Thursday afternoon.

At the rally, Lugo told the story of a recently bonded-out detainee named Rodrigo. He said Rodrigo suffered from a stroke while in the Bristol detention center and was not given the proper medical care. Rodrigo remained at the center until ULA could afford to bond him out. Lugo said Rodrigo is in the process of forming a lawsuit against the DHS as the result of not receiving proper medical care in the center.

“We feel like Rosa can make history if she votes for the people of Connecticut and asks to defund Sheriff Hodgson’s office,” Lugo said. 

Lugo additionally shared the story of a West Haven resident named Ayleen. Lugo said Ayleen was detained by ICE in Milford when visiting her probation officer. While detained in the Bristol center, she was assaulted several times by inmates, Lugo said. When Ayleen reported threats from inmates, the correctional workers did nothing, Lugo said. Ayleen is currently fighting a deportation case against her.

ULA has also been informed by other detainees that after a group led a hunger strike in the center against inadequate Covid-19 protections, Hodgson ordered correctional workers to assault them and charged detainees with crimes to be further sentenced because of the strike, according to Lugo.

“Doing a hunger strike is not a crime,” Lugo said to Mangini.

Lugo also called attention to a change in where detainees cases are seen. Lugo said many Connecticut detainees’ cases are no longer being heard in Hartford but instead in Boston. ​“When you have to care about your loved one who is detained in Bristol, and you have to go to Boston, the lawyer doesn’t cost $3,000 anymore. It’s going to cost $7,000,” Lugo said. Along with financial challenges, many families are struggling to find ways of travel to their loved ones’ court dates in Boston.

In an email to the Independent, the sheriff’s spokesperson, Jonathan Darling, responded: ​“Those claims are absurd and false. Inmates and ICE detainees in custody of the BCSO are treated with the highest standards of care and custody as evidenced by our national accreditations from the American Corrections Association, in which we got perfect 100% scores on our last two inspections, and the National Commission on Corrections Health Care. In addition, we are routinely audited by officials on the local, state and federal levels. Any claims of abuse by these political activist groups are completely false.”

“What do you want?” Lugo called out to the crowd at Wednesday’s event.

“Justice,” the group responded.

“When do you want it?”

“Now.”

Soon after Lugo took the microphone to address the crowd with Rodrigo and Ayleens’s stories, the building security guard came out and asked that the group move from in front of the building and take the posted sign down.

“No we’re not going to remove it,” responded Lugo.

The security guard threatened to call the police.

“And call Rosa DeLauro,” Lugo added.

“Rosa escucha. Estamos en la lucha!” the crowd changed, which translates to ​“Rosa Listen! We’re all in the struggle.

“We feel like this Bristol detention center should be closed. But we feel the strategy is to put the burden on Thomas Hodgson,” Lugo said. 

The building’s security guard came out a second time to ask the members of the crowd to move from the entranceway of building. Some complied.

“Many of us have been voting for her for many years, and we feel like she should hear our voices. The voices of the people. The voices of the people that suffer,” Lugo said. ​“This is why we came. All we were asking is to be heard and supported as residents.”

ULA called the Wednesday gathering a small victory.

“Sheriff Hodgson doesn’t have a space in New England. His hate against the immigrant community doesn’t have a space in Connecticut. The way he treats the immigrants doesn’t have a space in Connecticut,” Lugo said.

After the rally, a press conference was organized by ULA with more than 60 supporting organizations on Zoom to talk about the next plans of action and to hear the stories of Rodrigo and Ayleen. (Click here to watch the recorded Livestream)

The security guard later told Lugo that although he supported the group’s message, he had a job to do Wednesday. ​“DeLauro just has a suite here, it’s not her building. So I had to ask them to move from in front of the doors,” he said. He then took down the sign taped to the outside of the building after the crowd left.