WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) guards denied illegal immigrant detainees water and medical treatment during a Saturday protest at the Eloy Arizona Detention Center, Sandra Cornejo, the daughter of one of the detainees, told Sputnik.
“On Saturday, the detainees were not given any water, there were men fainting, and the guards were not doing anything, so we actually called 911 and ambulances arrived. The guards would not let them in to help the detainees,” Cornejo said on Wednesday.
The death of a detainee in May and inhumane treatment prompted up to 200 illegal immigrants at the Eloy Arizona Detention Center over the weekend to reportedly protest and go on hunger strike demanding better living conditions and treatment at the facility.
The immigrant organization Puente Movement, to which Cornejo belongs, is supporting the protest.
Cornejo said detainees should have been given access to water while they were under the hot desert sun in Arizona.
“They [ICE} were doing this crazy stuff in front of people supporting the detainees [on Saturday],” Cornejo said. “I cannot imagine how they are being treated behind the eyes of these people.”
She added that she has heard stories of woman who had a miscarriage and was not treated for days, in addition to other abuses at the detention center.
Cornejo is the daughter of illegal immigrant detainee Juan Cornejo, who left Mexico to seek asylum in the United States. Her father is currently awaiting his next court date to see whether US authorities will send him back to Mexico.
Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that thousands of undocumented migrants, including children, are denied food, water and medical care while being held in US detention facilities along the Mexican border.
On Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights slammed US immigration detention centers for their inhumane conditions, citing a lack of health care, violence and overcrowding. The UN envoy called for an overhaul of US policy on migrants, especially women and children, whose rights he said are being gravely violated.
