detained immigrants
Lawsuit accuses US of inhumane treatment
AFP
A lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses US President Donald Trump and senior administration officials of subjecting more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants to inhumane conditions at a federal prison in California, reports AFP from Los Angeles. Since June 8 the group of detainees have been imprisoned in violation of their constitutional rights, according to the complaint. They are locked in prison cells for much of the day and all night. No health care provider has assessed them, it says.
The suit was filed a day after lawmakers assailed the Trump administration for its controversial border policy, which in another widely condemned case has led to the separation of more than 2,500 undocumented migrant children from their parents or guardians.
The complaint says the immigrants in California have been subjected to harsh prison conditions that
can only reasonably be described as punitive and inhumane. Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others are named as defendants. The detainees are only allowed to exercise outdoors for a few hours a week, and are prevented from worshipping freely, the suit says.
In the chow hall, they are offered inadequate and, at times, inedible food, such as spoiled milk and sandwiches that consist of just two slices of bread, it adds.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement which the suit says transferred the detainees to the prison in early June declined to comment.
