Street roots., September 29, 2017, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • September 29-October 5, 2017
NORCOR, fro m page 4
ICE custody, and has said “Those who do
enter the country illegally, they do violate
the law, that is a criminal act.”
Legally, staying in the country after your
documentation has expired is a civil offense,
not a crime. Knowingly crossing the border
without the approval of an immigration
officer is a misdemeanor, punishable by up
to six months in prison.
Someone who has served his or her time,
or is doing what criminal courts mandate —
like the sous chef going to Alcoholics
Anonymous meetings and blowing in a
Breathalyzer to start his car - is not an
active criminal.
But the immigration detention system
and criminal corrections systems overlap,
and some civil detainees on ICE holds at
NORCOR, it seems, do have pending
criminal charges.
Brandenburg portrays NORCOR as
different from the GEO Group-managed
Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. He
said only ICE detainees with medium and
high classification levels are kept at
NORCOR.
“That is one of the most egregious lies
Bryan Brandenburg is telling,” said Mat dos
Santos of the ACLU. He added that ICE
sometimes picks up people on “very minor”
things, and said the ACLU has a client with
zero criminal record who has been held at
NORCOR in the past, and another with a
simple possession charge.
ICE’s online classification system states
that detainees with a “medium low” level
have “no history of violent or assaultive
charges or convictions, no institutional
misconduct, and no gang affiliation.
The idea of sanctuary is based in a state
statute (ORS 181A.820) going back to 1987
that says local jurisdictions cannot use their
resources to “detect or apprehend persons
whose only violation of law is that they are
persons of foreign citizenship present in the
United States in violation of federal
immigration laws.” The Oregon Law
Center’s lawsuit in Wasco County Court
alleges that NORCOR is violating the
sanctuary law with its inter-governmental
services agreement “which requires it to
incarcerate individuals solely to assist in the
enforcement of federal immigration law.”
Oregonians For Immigration Reform,
champions anti-immigration legislation, is
currently circulating a petition for a ballot
measure to repeal ORS 181A.820.
Oregon’s law does allow for agencies to
exchange information with immigration
officers to verify the immigration status of a
person “if the person is arrested for any
criminal offense.”
Brandenburg said the jail staff does pass
information on arrestees to ICE.
“If somebody is arrested locally, say on a
DUII, and they come into our facility, we do
a name and date of birth check and
background check, and we release that info
to immigration,” Brandenburg said. Now,
since they’re local, and since they may be
able to post bail, if they can post bail we
don’t hold them for ICE. ICE has to arrest
them and do whatever ICE does.”
“We also hold those that are being
federally prosecuted, federal prosecution
cases,” Brandenburg added, offering the
example of “someone who’s selling drugs,
and hasn’t been convicted yet.”
On behalf of four Wasco County
News
taxpayers, plaintiffs Brian Stovall, John
Olmstead, Connie Krummrich and Karen
Brown, the Oregon Law Center suit argues,
“Whether or not these persons have
criminal charges or convictions, the sole
reason they are held by NORCOR is to assist
ICE in the enforcement of federal
immigration laws.”
Coalition members say institutions such
as NORCOR are confusing civil violations
like being in the U.S. without proper
documentation with criminal offenses such
as assault and battery, or rape.
“The people that are being held there on
immigration holds are not criminals,” said
PCUN’s Ramirez. “The only thing they did
is called “EWI” - entered without
inspection. It is a violation, but it’s a minor
violation of the law.”
Schechtel, with the Gorge ICE
Resistance, said the people getting detained
by ICE agents and held at NORCOR are
being targeted by “paper sweeps.”
Like the sous chef, they may pop up on
ICE’s radar due to a recent criminal
violation, but typically it’s minor, and often
already adjudicated, according to Schechtel.
Brandenburg countered that he sees a
difference between a civil and a criminal
violation — but “if the civil detainee has
been dealing drugs, or breaking into houses,
or is part of a gang, should he be allowed to
stay (in the country)?”
“The people who are just here illegally, I
don’t want anything to do with them,”
Brandenburg added.
A top official of the state Democratic
party said its resolution, approved June 25,
reflects the party’s fundamental beliefs and
policy goals: immigration is not a crime.
“Illegally entering the country does not
equate with being a rapist and a drug
abuser,” said Atkins, the Democratic Party
chair. “The idea of equating everyone who
may not have arrived in the country legally
with people who commit crimes, especially
crimes of violence, is just sort of offensive
on its face.”
Clergy and members of the Gorge ICE
Resistance say children in ICE custody have
been placed in NORCOR’s juvenile facility
even though they’re not criminals.
Brandenburg says all those at NORCOR,
adult or juvenile, fit the facility’s
immigration housing policy, which is
“basically” that they have criminal histories.
“There’s two ICE juveniles in our
facilities that are validated gang members
from the East Coast who are being held
pending the outcome of their deportation.
And they have criminal histories,” he said.
best practices approaches to dealing with
the offender population, and as the result of
that, our numbers are going down,” he said.
Whatever the conditions inside NORCOR,
multiple sources agree ICE detainees often
spend far longer there than criminals
awaiting adjudication.
Boonstra, with the Gorge Ecumenical
Ministries, said the difference in length of
stays is actually the most troubling thing of
all about how ICE detainees are treated in
NORCOR.
“If you’re in NORCOR as a criminal
inmate, your average time at NORCOR is
about 12 days, and then you’ll go one place
or another,” Boonstra said. “The most
haunting thing about being an immigrant
detainee is you’re there indefinitely. They
wait months and months and months for a
court hearing to happen.”
NORCOR’s website, which lists booking
dates and other information for inmates —
but has no information at all on ICE
detainees — suggests most criminals are in
the facility for a period of days to a few
weeks: 86 of 136 listed on Sept. 24 had
been booked that same month.
Dos Santos said some detainees are held
as long as six months at a time.
ICE detainees cannot get time off for
good behavior when doing work shifts, as
regular prisoners can, said Red Stevens, the
minister of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in
the Dalles, who visits the detainees every
week.
“The jail inmates, the regular criminal
inmates get good time for doing these, b u t
IC E d e ta in e e s c a n ’t g e t th e ir tim e
shortened,” Stevens said. “So a dollar a day
is basically what they’re offered. So some
people don’t want to do that,
understandably. It gets kind of messy if
nobody wants to clean the bathroom.”
In Tacoma, the practice of paying
detainees $1 per shift recently became the
focus of a lawsuit by Washington State,
which last week announced it is suing The
GEO Group for failing to pay immigrants
the state-mandated minimum wage.
Exceptions to minimum-wage laws are
common for inmates in government-run jails
and prisons, such as NORCOR. However,
GEO Group is a for-profit company,
detaining people facing civil immigration
proceedings, and Washington’s lawsuit says
those inmates can’t be forced to work for
below the minimum wage.
Stevens confirms the ACLU’s account of
food inside the facility, and said inmates he
interviews “find it insulting that the menu
that is posted on the wall is not the menu
that they are fed. The food that they are fed
is very high on carbohydrates.... Breakfast
this morning was a sack with two hardboiled
he ACLU contends that “harsh
eggs, four slices of bread and a little snack
conditions” inside NORCOR exist for
cake and one of those packets of juice
both regular prisoners and ICE detainees.
powder, Kool-Aid kind of stuff. That s the
The ACLU’s demand letter details what it
morning meal five times a week.”
considers violations of detainees’ lawful
Brandenburg said the assertion detainees
rights to attorneys, medical care, inadequate
are fed unhealthy, carbohydrate-laden diets
nutrition and exercise facilities, denial of
is “complete bullshit.” The jail employs a
religious liberty, no means of visitation with
registered dietician, he noted.
family and exorbitant phone rates.
“It’s an example of folks trying to
Brandenburg responded that such
exaggerate a situation to make it seem like
allegations are “unfounded and in truth,
it’s worse than what it is,” he said.
false.”
In his letter responding to the ACLU’s
Brandenburg has been administrator for
complaints, Brandenburg writes that
two and a half years, and said the facility’s
NORCOR passed 33 of 35 standards in an
recividism rate has dropped from 75 to 64
“ICE detention audit” in 2011 and are
percent during that time.
scheduled for another this November.
“I just opened a mental health treatment
unit - just done a lot of really progressive
T
Page 5
he easiest way for anyone, media or not,
to confirm or deny conditions for ICE
detainees inside NORCOR would be to go in
and talk to people.
NORCOR and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement are publicly funded
institutions, meaning employees such as ICE
spokeswoman Virginia Kice and NORCOR
Administrator Brandenburg are paid with
taxpayer money.
But transparency appears to be a low
priority at ICE and NORCOR.
Brandenburg said that ICE rules are the
reason detainees aren’t on the NORCOR
website.
“It’s a standard or statute by ICE. They
don’t allow it. They also don’t allow me to
post their criminal history. That you’d have
to ask (ICE).”
Last week, a source with access to
NORCOR’s ICE detainees was able to
confirm that a Mexican detainee named
Angel Alonso Lujan-Gonzales was able and
willing to be interviewed by a reporter, and
understood the possible risks.
The day after the source provided Mr.
Lujan-Gonzales’ name - Sept. 22, the day an
interview request was emailed to ICE
spokeswoman Kice and NORCOR
Administrator Brandenburg - Street Roots
got a call from Brandenburg.
“That guy was moved this morning. They
moved several folks this morning,”
Brandenburg said. “So, sorry.”
Lujan-Gonzales was able to be located
only using his “A” (for “alien”) number in
T
I C E ’s s y s t e m . M u l t i p l e q u e r i e s f o r b i m
using various versions and spellings of his
name returned the message “Your search
has returned zero (0) matching records.”
Even if the detainee hadn’t been
physically moved, ICE spokeswoman Kice
seemed to present a moving target for
media wanting to interview a willing
detainee.
When first contacted Sept. 15, she
responded in an email, “please advise on the
person’s name and where they’re being
housed. We’ll reach out to the individual to
see if he or she is willing to provide signed
consent to meet with you. If the detainee
consents, we’ll make arrangements for you
to meet with him or her.”
But by Sept. 24, after Street Roots
specifically requested to interview Lujan-
Gonzales and noted the detainee is willing
to be interviewed, Kice laid down the
bureaucratic roadblocks. Two forms would
have to be signed before an interview could
take place, Kice wrote. She noted that
Lujan-Gonzales is represented by an
attorney, “so you’ll need to coordinate with
his attorney to clear the interview.”
She didn’t say who that attorney is, and
it’s not on the ICE website.
“We would need a completed version of
this form before arranging the interview,”
she noted. “Also attached is a privacy waiver
form ... This is the form we would need to
have the detainee complete in order for us
to release information to you about his
case.”
Kice declined to respond to a list of
questions about ICE detainees at NORCOR,
noting ICE is “severely short-staffed right
now,” and unable to answer emailed
questions within a week’s time.
The source who provided Lujan-Gonzales’
See NORCOR, page 7