Immigrants held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Aurora detention facility no longer receive original copies of mail sent to them, and senders are seeing months-long delays in returned letters making their way back, advocacy organization Casa de Paz says.
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Andrea Loya, executive director of Casa de Paz, said the people detained at ICE’s Denver Contract Detention Facility — run by private prison company Geo Group — are having their mail opened and scanned, and they are given copies instead of the original material.
For example, Loya said someone who received a birthday card was presented with a black-and-white print-out of the front of the card. People are being mailed drawings from their loved ones, but given photocopied versions instead of the actual illustrations.
Additionally, Loya said a large amount of mail is being returned to senders without explanation. People used to be able to include self-addressed, stamped envelopes in their mail so the recipients could respond without having to buy marked-up stamps at the detention center’s commissary, but Loya said the stamped envelopes are now considered contraband and are being returned.
“There is a claim (that) if people don’t have the means, the facility will provide the stamps, but we know people have reported they are denied stamps,” Loya said. “The way the system tries to continually make money off people is not fair.”
Immigration advocacy organizations say they noticed the change beginning in April. ICE representatives did not answer an emailed question from The Denver Post about when these changes were introduced.
The practice of opening and scanning mail and delivering the scanned copies to detainees is common within prison settings, and is designed to prevent liquid drugs or other chemicals from being smuggled in.
In Colorado, depending on location and the offender’s status, some inmates receive scanned copies of their mail while others get original copies, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections handbook.
“This is not supposed to be like prison,” Loya said. “Geo claims these are housing facilities and not prisons. Most of the people in these facilities don’t have a criminal record. Quite frankly, it’s just an excuse for people to not get their mail. When that’s the one thing they have access to, that is unfortunate.”
Loya also said immigrants within the facility allege that staffers are opening their legal mail without them present, which goes against ICE protocol.
When reached for comment about the mail operations, Geo Group spokesman Christopher V. Ferreira referred The Post to ICE. An ICE representative did not answer specific questions about their mail policies, including whether staff members were improperly opening immigrants’ legal mail.
Natalie Petrucci, detention program deputy managing attorney at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, said their organization has also seen a change in immigrants’ mail services, including long delays in sending and receiving mail.
As people make their way through immigration court, oftentimes the only way they can present evidence to help obtain asylum or bond is via documents sent through the mail, like letters confirming they have housing or documented proof that they’ve paid taxes, Petrucci said. With mail held up in sometimes months-long backlogs, Petrucci said immigrants within the detention center have to attend court hearings without the evidence they need to advocate for themselves.
“People are having to move forward on their cases without their critical case evidence,” Petrucci said. “We know of examples where their mail didn’t make it in time for their court cases.”
In response to questions about why ICE switched its mail policies, what was now considered contraband and whether the facility was improperly opening immigrants’ legal mail, an unidentified ICE representative said via email that the answers could be found in a
The policy states: “This detention standard ensures that detainees shall be able to correspond with their families, the community, legal representatives, government offices and consular officials consistent with the safe and orderly operation of the facility.”
The policy also said the amount and content of correspondence detainees send at their own expense shall not be limited, except to protect public safety and that correspondence “shall be read or rejected only to protect the safe, secure and orderly operation of the facility, and detainees shall be notified in writing when correspondence is withheld in part or in full.”
The rules state legal mail will only be opened in the presence of detainees — a rule Loya said ICE was breaking.
One of ICE’s rules says incoming and outgoing mail shall be held no longer than 24 or 48 hours before distribution, excluding weekends, holidays or “exceptional circumstances.”
Loya showed The Post letters that were postmarked as having been sent to the Aurora detention facility in April and not returned to sender until late June, according to postal markings on the envelopes.
“It’s very clear they don’t know what they’re doing,” Loya said. “When you get mail in this facility, it gives you strength. When you take that away, it does affect that morale piece, and there’s really nothing else to do in detention.”
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