By Diana Novak Jones and Emily Schmall
CHICAGO (Reuters) -A federal judge in Chicago ordered federal officials to improve conditions for detainees at a suburban Chicago immigration facility, including access to clean toilets, after a lawsuit alleged the conditions were unconstitutional and inhumane.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman granted the detainees’ request for a temporary restraining order on Wednesday, saying he found accounts from witnesses were extremely credible and that the conditions at the facility did not “pass constitutional muster.”
Gettleman said he added some conditions to the order beyond what plaintiffs requested, based on witnesses’ testimony at a hearing on Tuesday.The order sets requirements for detainees’ meals and hygiene needs at the facility in Broadview, Illinois, and mandates that officials provide phone access so detainees can communicate privately with their attorneys.
It also requires federal officials to enter all detainees into a tracking log kept by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, so their locations are recorded. The detainees’ lawyers described the facility as a “black box” where people could not make confidential calls to lawyers and had no privacy. Several witnesses testified that they were confined to overcrowded and filthy cells and forced to sleep on the floor. The government has argued that the people detained at Broadview are only there for a brief stay and are given appropriate food, shelter and access to their attorneys. They also argued that any order dictating treatment in the facility could interfere with the government’s ability to enforce immigration laws. Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown in Chicago began in September, the Broadview facility, previously used only to process people suspected of residing in the U.S. illegally, has been used as a holding center.
The government said the requirements would “effectively prohibit ICE from temporarily holding any individual in the state of Illinois.”
Gettleman said the government had until Friday to implement the order, and asked for an update on their actions by midday Friday. The order expires on November 19, with a hearing set for that day. Several federal judges in Chicago have sided against the Trump administration in recent cases that temporarily blocked a National Guard deployment and restricted the use of tear gas and other force by immigration agents against protesters and journalists.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones and Emily Schmall in Chicago; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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