Maine ACLU Denounces ‘Cruel’ Use of New Hampshire Federal Prison to Hold ICE Detainees

The Maine American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued a statement denouncing the use of a New Hampshire federal prison by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain suspected illegal aliens.

[RELATED: Maine ACLU Vows to Resist ‘repression and totalitarianism’ of Second Trump Administration…]

Last month, media outlets began reporting on a leaked memo, signed Feb. 6, that indicated ICE was intending to use FCI Berlin, a medium-security prison in Berlin, N.H., to hold immigration detainees in custody.

That memo noted that the units at FCI were not currently available due to there being a “substantial amount of preparation and resources” needed before the prison could accept detainees, such as additional funding for staffing, food, utilities, clothing and other items.

The memo also indicates that the federal Bureau of Prisons or warden at each locally designated prison may approve or reject a request by ICE to hold an ICE detainee for any reason, such as for lack of space, or medical, mental health, safety or security reasons.

ICE lodges immigration detainers against unlawfully present noncitizens who have been arrested on criminal charges or who the agency has probable cause to believe are deportable from the U.S.

“The government should not be using federal prisons to support the president’s mass deportation efforts,” said Carol Garvan, legal director of the ACLU of Maine, in a Monday statement.

“The federal government itself acknowledged that FCI Berlin would require a ‘substantial amount of preparation,’ yet just weeks later they have already begun detaining people there,” Garvan said. “We have strong concerns about the inhumane treatment of people in ICE custody, and we will not stand by while our region is used to carry out these cruel policies.”

[RELATED: Maine ACLU Says Failed Proposal to Legalize Portland Homeless Encampments with Frequent Overdoses, Assaults, and Rapes Would Have Been “Positive First Step”…]

At a townhall event in Portland in September of last year, the Maine ACLU’s policy counsel Michael Kebede likened immigration enforcement by ICE to Nazis in 1930s Germany, and said the Maine ACLU would be urging the Maine Legislature to pass laws protecting illegal immigrants from deportation.

At the same Portland event, Kebede described supporters of deporting illegal immigrants as “vile political communities” and “the forces of neo-fascism.”

[RELATED: Maine ACLU Lawyer Likens ICE to Nazi Germany, Urges State to Block Illegal Immigrant Deportations…]

According to the Maine ACLU, the New Hampshire federal prison could be used by ICE to free up space at the Cumberland County Jail, which was holding over 60 inmates in the agency’s custody as of Monday.

“Immigration detention is unjust, inhumane, and unnecessary, and ILAP joins partners across New England in condemning the Trump administration’s expansion of immigrant detention in our region,” said Melissa Brennan, co-legal director of the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP).

“This plan, like the mass incarceration of immigrants anywhere, poses serious risks to peoples’ health, safety, and legal rights,” Brennan said. “ILAP calls on our elected officials at all levels of government to take action to stop the expansion of detention here and across the nation and to reject the administration’s vitriolic and false rhetoric and actions to criminalize immigrant communities.”  

ILAP, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, provides legal services to immigrants in Maine, and advocates against policies of mass immigration enforcement, detention and deportation. The organization also supports the expansion of welfare benefits to noncitizen migrants in Maine.