ice

This story has been updated throughout to include a statement from CoreCivic. 

Cameroonian immigrants held at detention centers under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) New Orleans Field Office say officers and facility staff members pepper-sprayed, beat, forcefully restrained, and humiliated them to make them sign travel documents related to their deportation.

People held in two immigration detention centers have faced sweltering heat, no water, a lack of food, and sewage problems in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, according to immigration advocates.

Translated by Luis Rodrigàlvarez

José Hernández Pérez, hondureño de 36 años, llevaba viviendo en el Centro de Procesamiento ICE Pine Prairie de la zona central de Luisiana unos tres meses, cuando algunas personas de su dormitorio, de un total de 40, empezaron a enfermarse a mediados de julio.

When Tatalu Helen Dada called last Friday from the LaSalle Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, the line was muffled, but her desperation was clear.

“Everyone here, we are at risk,” she said. “You have the officers come in from the streets, they're still bringing people from the streets. So basically our life is in danger.”

According to his lawyers, Joel Ramirez Palma was on the thirteenth floor of the Hard Rock Hotel building when it began to fall. He survived by jumping down into the floors below him as the concrete and steel collapsed overhead. Ramirez Palma was one of many injured. Three of his coworkers died.