Footage unsealed by federal judge gives most damning evidence yet of what some call abusive conditions for people detained at southern US border

The photograph, a still image drawn from video footage captured by a security camera, shows a mass of cylindrical shapes squashed together in a box and wrapped in what appears to be silver foil, their surfaces glistening like sardines in a tin.



The shapes are not sardines, however, but human beings. And they are wrapped not in foil but in emergency blankets, handed out to them as they were put into a cramped detention center at the US border, courtesy of the federal agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The image, and several others like it released on Thursday at the order of a federal judge, gives the most damning evidence yet seen of the exceptionally harsh and some say abusive conditions to which immigrants are subjected when detained at the southern US border with Mexico.

Previously held under seal in a federal lawsuit in which the CBP is being sued for allegedly degrading and unconstitutional treatment of its charges, the photos offer a window into a world that until now has been rarely seen.

The shapes disclose that about 15 immigrant detainees were packed into a single cell at the Border Patrol’s facility in Tucson, Arizona. They are wrapped from head to toe in Mylar aluminium sheets for warmth, and appear to be lying directly on top of the concrete floor with no mattressing or other bedding of any sort.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest September 2015; Douglas facility; woman changing a child’s diaper on top of Mylar sheets on concrete floor in a trash-strewn cell. Photograph: American Immigration Council

The image – timed and dated as 5.16am on 19 August 2015 – shows detainees so tightly squashed together that there is no room for them to move.

Groups working with immigrant detainees at the border have long complained that the inmates are treated inhumanely, kept in bare concrete cells that are freezing in temperature as a form of punishment. The colloquial word for the cells is “hieleras”, or ice boxes.

The CBP has consistently denied that it treats inappropriately those it has picked up at the border attempting to enter the country illegally, and has also denied that it keeps its cells unacceptably cold. But the litigants in the lawsuit say that the newly released images prove that their concerns were justified.

“Migrants detained in the Tucson sector have long suffered horrific conditions,” said Dan Pochoda, senior counsel for the ACLU of Arizona. “It is unconscionable that the federal government continues to detain people including infants in this manner. The Border Patrol continues to operate in violation of US and international law as well as its own standards without being held accountable for these egregious abuses.”

“The images unsealed by the court leave no room to debate the fact that thousands of immigrants are subjected to inhumane and unconstitutional conditions by the Border Patrol,” said Nora Preciado, staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Undated; Tucson facility; men wrapped in Mylar sheeting lying and sitting on concrete floor and benches, including near trash can and toilet area; cell so crowded there is not room for all to lie down. Photograph: American Immigration Council

“We urgently need meaningful and lasting reforms that put an end to these abuses, hold the agency accountable, and ensure that people are treated with dignity.”



The lawsuit, which continues, has been brought on behalf of all detainees held in CBP facilities in the Tucson section of the border for more than eight hours. It is designed to prevent the Border Patrol holding them in what the plaintiffs say are unconstitutional circumstances.

As part of the evidence gathered in the case, the American Immigration Council consulted Eldon Vail, a former corrections officer with 35 years experience in prisons. In his expert opinion, he said that he had never been in a prison or jail that treated inmates as badly as CBP treated the border detainees.

“I have seen and experienced the effects of overcrowding but no jurisdiction would cram so many people into so little space, without beds and bedding,” he said.

