“They need and deserve to return to their families and heal from the trauma they’ve endured at the hands of the government.
“These are people who have been abused by federal employees in some of the most horrific ways one could be harmed in prison,” said Susan Beaty, supervising attorney with the Oakland-based non-profit Centro Legal de la Raza, who is representing Cristal and other survivors. At least eight victims have already been deported. A coalition of legal advocates says that at least 26 of those survivors are now facing deportation, including several who directly testified in court. Indictments against five officers show that guards systematically victimized women in their custody, intimidated them into silence, lied to cover up crimes and often targeted non-citizens. I trusted them and told them what I went through and this is how they treat me?”Ĭristal’s nightmare is not an anomaly, but a common experience across the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), east of San Francisco.
“It hurts me, because I was supposed to be protected. I thought I was finally going to get to go home and hug my kids,” Cristal, 31, said about the day she was detained by agents of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).