Guards at New Jersey Detention Facilities Used Dogs Against Immigrant Detainees

NPR reported in November 2004 that guards at two New Jersey jails contracted by the Department of Homeland Security to hold immigration detainees allegedly beat those detainees, deployed dogs against them, and in at least one case sent a detainee to the hospital for treatment of injuries ^[1]. The investigation, conducted by reporter Daniel Zwerdling for NPR, examined allegations that guards had beaten up detainees and mistreated them in other ways at two New Jersey jails used by Homeland Security ^[1].

The central case in the first installment involved Hemnauth Mohabir, a Guyanese national caught in the enforcement regime that followed Congressional changes to immigration law. Mohabir was flagged at Kennedy International Airport in April 2002 after an immigration agent identified a prior criminal record: a misdemeanor drug possession conviction for which a judge had fined him $250 and allowed him to go free six years earlier. That conviction formed the basis for deportation proceedings ^[1]. Before being returned to Guyana, Mohabir was held for nearly two years at New Jersey's Passaic County Jail, where he alleges guards taunted and beat detainees and terrorized them with dogs ^[1]. A second detainee independently corroborated his account, according to NPR ^[1].

The Passaic County Jail's administration did not engage with the investigation. Officials there did not respond to calls, letters, or emails requesting comment, and media spokesman William Maer refused to discuss any specific allegations that guards beat detainees ^[1]. The physical evidence supporting the allegations, however, came from the facility's own records: official documents from the Passaic County Jail and confidential medical records showed that at least two prisoners were taken to the hospital for treatment for dog bites in 2004 ^[1]. Detainee Rosendo Lewis, 29, stated he was bitten by a dog and beaten during a confrontation with guards. A chief officer's report mirrored Lewis's account in most respects, with the dispute centering on who initiated the confrontation ^[1].

The NPR series drew a rapid federal response. One day after the first report aired, Clark Kent Ervin, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, issued a statement announcing a review focused on the treatment of detained immigrants at DHS, intergovernmental service agreement, and contract detention facilities across the country, including those in New Jersey, with a public report expected by spring 2005 ^[1]. The Homeland Security Department also notified the Passaic County Jail and other federally contracted facilities to stop using dogs around detainees, the day after NPR's investigation aired ^[2]. A follow-up report in December 2004 found further consequences: New Jersey's Hudson County Jail announced plans to fire two key officers and file administrative charges against nine other guards following the coverage ^[2].

The conditions at Passaic County Jail were not without prior context. NPR had established in subsequent reporting that guards at the Passaic County Jail had ordered dogs to attack immigrant detainees and that guards at the nearby Hudson County Jail had beaten detainees while they were handcuffed ^[1]. Under immigration laws revised during the 1990s, the government had rounded up tens of thousands of immigrants annually for crimes ranging from serious offenses to visa overstays, even after those individuals had already served their sentences, holding them for months or years while deportation orders were processed ^[1].

References

[1] NPR. (2004, November 17). Immigrant Detainees Tell of Attack Dogs and Abuse. https://www.npr.org/2004/11/17/4170152/immigrant-detainees-tell-of-attack-dogs-and-abuse

[2] NPR. (2004, November 30 and December 9). Jailed Immigrants Allege Abuse (series). https://www.npr.org/series/4184282/jailed-immigrants-allege-abuse