By Andrea Vasquez
At its March 26 meeting, the Torrance County Commission unanimously passed a seven-month extension of its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house migrants at the Torrance County Detention Facility.
The meeting featured many members of the public speaking about alleged abuse at the facility, which has been a theme as reports of lawsuits over poor conditions have plagued the jail.
The commissioners’ unanimous vote came after community members, human rights advocates and legal experts came together in Estancia to demand an end to the county’s relationship with the private-prison operator of the facility, CoreCivic, and ICE.
Organizations such as the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, Innovation Law Lab, Catholic Charities and more voiced their concerns about the detention facility’s alleged malpractices.
The facility has been criticized for inhumane conditions, medical neglect and mistreatment of detained immigrants.
“Since the reopening of Torrance County Detention Facility in 2017, the community has documented persistent human rights abuses, due process violations and unlivable conditions at the facility,” said Sophia Genovese, managing attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. “We have consistently escalated these pervasive issues to the count, ICE and Core Civic and instead of rectifying these problems, attorneys, activists and people detained at TCDF have been retaliated against. These problems not only persist, but they have worsened now.”
Current and former detainees have reported poor living and treatment conditions, such as inadequate medical care, insufficient food, lack of communication with family, psychological abuse and separation from family members at the TCDF.
Recordings and translations of testimonies from detainees were also presented at the meeting.
Victor Romero Hernandez from Innovation Law Lab translated a recording stating, “We are fighting here for our rights as human beings… We are fighting for our rights. We are in Torrance pleading for ourselves to have the right to medicine. They don’t give us medicine. The food is very bad. They don’t give us water.”
The translated testimony also claimed, “We recently went on strike to get them to provide us with all these services. And instead of attending to us, they attack us.”
Federal inspectors and human rights advocates have called for TCDF’s permanent closure. They argue that the county’s contract values profit over human dignity and inherently violates the human rights of detainees and workers.
Additionally, District 3 Commissioner Linda Jaramillo expressed her interest in unannounced visits to the detention center, stating that no “human should be treated inhumanely.”
Despite extensive public comment and outcry over alleged abuses, the commissioners approved the intergovernmental agreement between Torrance County and ICE, extending the contract until Oct. 31, 2025.