Detainees Speak Out From Inside the Port Isabel Detention Center

Advocates in touch with detained immigrants inside the facility, many of whom are asylum seekers and have never committed a crime, began reporting wholly inadequate protections against COVID-19 at PIDC in March. ICE has since reported a total of four positive cases inside the facility. Three of those cases listed on ICE’s website are currently under isolation or monitoring. The ongoing transfer of detainees between detention centers, the admittance of new detainees into the facility, and a lack of testing available to potential asymptomatic carriers means that more likely than not, there is already an outbreak happening inside the facility.

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Federal Judge Orders Bond Hearing For Asylum Seeker Held In ICE Custody Nearly Three Years

A federal judge in Brownsville, Texas ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to facilitate a bond hearing for an asylum seeker the agency has detained at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos for nearly three years. The decision came only after four appeals challenging the man’s order of removal, a separate habeas petition filed by his attorney late last year, and an application for a temporary restraining order seeking the man’s release due to risks posed by COVID-19.

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Storm Damages Tents, Floods Pathways In Matamoros Migrant Camp As Aid Work Continues

A Saturday morning downpour sent the camp of asylum seekers along a levee in Matamoros, Tamaulipas into disarray. Heavy winds brought down trees and destroyed tent dwellings secured to trees with ropes. Rain soaked belongings and documents. Clay pathways along the river stretching two recreational soccer fields turned to thick, slippery mud and pools of water collected on uneven ground, overwhelming trenches dug by residents to channel rainwater into the Rio Grande.

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Witness At The Border Tracks ICE Air Deportation Flights Leaving the Rio Grande Valley

A report published by organizers with Witness at the Border details the number of ICE Air flights that left the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport during the first several months of the year in an effort to document who was being deported and to where – both before and after the spread of COVID-19.

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Lawsuits Detail How The State Department Targets U.S. Citizens Born With Midwives In The Rio Grande Valley

Two lawsuits filed on behalf of Rio Grande Valley residents detail how the federal government targets U.S. citizens born by midwives, opting to revoke the passports and citizenship certificates of those with duplicate birth records in Mexico before conducting any substantial investigation into the circumstances surrounding each case.

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