By Vanguard Staff
ANCHORAGE, AK – In a scathing letter sent June 28, the ACLU of Alaska, joined by the ACLU’s National Prison Project and the law firm Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP, demanded the immediate removal of all immigrant detainees from the Anchorage Correctional Complex (ACC), warning that current conditions place detainees at risk of serious harm and violate both constitutional protections and federal detention standards.
The letter, addressed to state and federal officials including Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, Commissioner of Corrections Jennifer Winkelman, and senior ICE officials, condemned the decision to transfer 41 detainees to ACC from Washington State earlier in the month. Detainees, representing over 20 countries and speaking 14 languages, arrived without public notice or proper preparation by facility staff. At least 35 remain held in conditions that advocates argue are punitive, unsafe, and wholly unsuitable for civil detention.
“Given the inability of ACC to meet federal standards of care, the answer [to how many immigrant detainees ACC could safely house] should have been zero,” the letter reads. The ACLU warns that the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC), already under a lawsuit for inadequate medical care, cannot ensure even the basic safety of criminally charged individuals—let alone civil detainees, who are constitutionally entitled to more considerate treatment.
Reports from detainees and their attorneys paint a bleak picture. Immigrants have been subjected to excessive use of force, including a pepper spray incident on June 12 in response to what officials described as a “verbal demonstration.” Detainees say the protest was an attempt to retrieve consular contact information from their personal property. After being sprayed, many experienced respiratory distress and received no medical care, despite one individual having a chronic pulmonary condition. Days-long lockdowns, shackling during movements, and strip searches after attorney visits have also been documented.
Compounding these concerns, the ACLU notes that detainees have been denied adequate access to legal counsel, translation services, medical care, and basic hygiene. Law library access is minimal, translation support is virtually nonexistent, and some detainees were placed three to a cell with one sleeping on the floor next to a malfunctioning toilet. Attorneys have been blocked from bringing phones into contact visits, impeding access to interpreters.
The ACLU also highlighted reports that some individuals remain detained despite having already been granted asylum or other humanitarian relief. “Continued detention of people who have prevailed in their immigration cases is unreasonable,” the letter states, urging ICE to release them immediately.
Transportation to the facility was described as traumatizing and inhumane. Detainees say they were chained in an outdated cargo plane without proper seating, toilets, or safety protocols. Several suffered physical pain and psychological distress, with some describing the experience as “torture.”
Among the letter’s demands: immediate release of those granted relief, an end to strip searches, improved access to counsel and phones, adequate medical care, language interpretation services, and the cessation of all future ICE transfers to ACC until conditions are substantially improved.
The groups are seeking to discuss the issue further and have invited state and federal officials to engage in dialogue.
