Immigrants held at the Orange County Correctional Facility are struggling to get medical attention, even when their conditions are serious, according to a complaint sent to officials at the Department of Homeland Security by a group of lawyers and advocates this week.
In one case, a man who began losing his vision in one eye because of a brain cyst was first prescribed glasses to treat the condition, according to the complaint. Later, when medical staff did diagnose him, no one shared the diagnosis with him. He learned about it more than two weeks later, after his attorney saw it in his paperwork, the complaint says.
In another case, a woman who is a trauma survivor and who suffers from anxiety, depression, night terrors, panic attacks and insomnia was unable to get therapy or access to medications that had been prescribed before she was incarcerated.
“Many of their complaints are unanswered,” said Michelle Doherty, a lawyer for Brooklyn Defender Services, one of the groups that wrote the complaint. “They're ignored or there's a significant delay in treatment, which in certain circumstances … has worsened their condition.”
The concerns are the most recent among many made about New York area jails where immigrants awaiting deportation proceedings are held. Past complaints have included abusive treatment by correction officers, moldy meat and a loaded gun left in a bathroom.
The advocates — which also include Catholic Charities and the Immigrant Rights Clinic at NYU Law School, among others — called for the detainees to be released from the facility immediately. They are also asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end its detention contract with the Orange County Correctional Facility, and investigate conditions at the facility in Goshen, New York.
Representatives of ICE, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security overseeing the jail's detention unit, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. A spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, also did not respond to a request for comment.
The Hudson Valley facility is one of several in the New York region that holds immigrants awaiting the disposition of their deportation cases. While there were as many as 2,000 immigrants from the New York City area held at county jails in New Jersey a few years ago, many were transferred elsewhere last summer after political pressure over poor conditions led counties to terminate their contracts with ICE.
Daniel Ball, a spokesperson for Brooklyn Defender Services, said attorneys there are aware of about 30 immigrants still being held at the Orange County facility, though there may be more who are not represented by public defenders.
Pseudonyms were used to identify the detainees in the letter. Ball said they asked that their real names be withheld because they fear retaliation.
Gothamist spoke to the woman who said she was denied medication for a mental health condition. She was released last week, and said she is concerned about the people she left behind in the facility. She asked that her name be withheld because she fears retaliation, and because of the “sensitive nature of her asylum petition.”
“I really felt upset when I got released and the other girls stayed there because I know that they're not getting the help that they need,” she said. “What I can say is that when people say that there's no medical care, they're actually telling you the truth,” the woman said.
