President Donald Trump’s administration is using federal prisons to detain some people arrested in its immigration crackdown, the federal Bureau of Prisons said Friday, returning to a strategy that drew allegations of mistreatment during his first term.
Last October, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Bureau of Prisons and immigration authorities under the Freedom of Information Act for records related to the use of federal prisons to detain immigrants during Trump’s first term.
In 2018, during Trump’s first term, the Bureau of Prisons reached an agreement with ICE and Customs and Border Protection to detain up to 1,600 immigrants at federal prison facilities in Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and Texas.
Six immigrants detained under that arrangement at a medium-security federal prison in Victorville, California, sued Trump, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and immigration and prison officials, alleging “punitive and inhumane” treatment.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the prison agency said it is assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “by housing detainees and will continue to support our law enforcement partners to fulfill the administration’s policy objectives.”.
