Detained migrants at American facilities are suing the federal government over conditions and medical care; claiming they received sub-par treatment after illegally entering the United States through the southern border.
“Immigrants held in U.S. detention facilities filed a lawsuit Monday decrying what they called shoddy medical care and a failure by authorities to provide accommodations for disabilities,” reports the Associated Press.
“In the suit filed by disability and civil rights advocates in U.S. District Court, immigrants said they’re placed in isolation as punishment and denied recommended medical treatment and surgery. Some said they’ve been denied wheelchairs and a deaf detainee who communicates in American Sign Language said he has not been provided an interpreter,” adds the website.
“ICE cannot simply contract with third parties to operate its detention centers and then wash its hands of the deplorable, unlawful conditions in those detention centers,” said Tim Fox, co-executive director of the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.
The lawsuit specifically singles-out detention centers in California and Colorado.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez routinely refers to the centers as ‘Concentration Camps.’
“To the folks outraged at the academics + experts naming our concentration camp system what it is, what else do you call camps where parents die as their children watch? Discomfort at the truth should spur us to change it. Denial prioritizes our comfort over people’s lives,” posted AOC on social media.
To the folks outraged at the academics + experts naming our concentration camp system what it is, what else do you call camps where parents die as their children watch?
Discomfort at the truth should spur us to change it. Denial prioritizes our comfort over people’s lives ⬇️ https://t.co/z4LIjNWwdg
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 2, 2019
Read the full report at the Associated Press.