ACLU sues over Bunker Hill ICE detention conditions

South Bend, Ind. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday claiming that immigration detainees at the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill face unconstitutional living conditions. The facility, often called the Speedway Slammer, serves as a detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The class action complaint describes Miami Correctional as Indiana’s largest and most dangerous high security prison. The plaintiffs argue the facility is dangerously understaffed and that staff use abusive punishment methods. The suit claims detainees are forced into solitary confinement for 23 to 24 hours a day with little justification. It also alleges that staff use racial and xenophobic language, referring to the detained population as a plague.

Three individuals named in the lawsuit are Sergei Vasenin from Russia, Kemoye Muslar from Jamaica, and Cynthia Acevedo from Guatemala. The complaint states these plaintiffs are being denied adequate medical care, food, water, clothing, essential medications, and hygiene items. One plaintiff with a history of epilepsy is reportedly denied proper medication, while another has waited weeks for healthcare.

Mark Feldman, a senior litigation attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said the conditions show a lack of accountability for ICE. He noted that the agency turned to this isolated prison during intense arrest operations in Chicago and Minnesota. Feldman said hundreds of people were moved to the facility where they must endure conditions or abandon their immigration cases to depart the country voluntarily.

"No one should have to choose between their safety and their right to seek immigration relief in this country. ICE’s use of Miami Correctional as a tool of coercion and abuse must end," Feldman said.

The ACLU announcement noted that at least two people died at Miami Correctional last year and another attempted suicide. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring federal and state officials to take immediate steps to protect those detained there.