ICE Needs to Address Prolonged Administrative Segregation and Other Violations at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility

Although the Imperial Regional Detention Facility (IRDF) generally complied with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention standards regarding classification of detainees according to risk, it did not meet the standards for segregation, facility condition, medical grievances, and detainee communication. We determined detainees were held in administrative segregation for prolonged periods of 22-23 hours per day, including two detainees who had been held in isolation for more than 300 days. We also determined that parts of the facility were in poor condition, medical checks were insufficient to ensure proper detainee care, medical grievances and responses were not properly documented, and ICE communication with detainees was limited. Until ICE takes corrective action to address these violations of detention standards, the facility will be unable to ensure an environment that protects the health, safety, and rights of detainees. We made six recommendations to ICE’s Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) to ensure the San Diego ERO Field Office overseeing IRDF addresses identified issues and ensures facility compliance with relevant detention standards. ICE concurred with all six recommendations and is implementing a corrective action plan to address the concerns identified.