[Pnews] She reported being abuse by U.S. prison guards. Now she faces deportation

[Prisoner News]

theguardian.com 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/06/federal-prison-sexual-abuse-deportation-california-mexico> 



  She reported being abused by US prison guards. Now she faces deportation


Cristal image.webp
I was supposed to be protected’, said Cristal of her ordeal. Composite: 
The Guardian/Family of Cristal/Getty

Sam Levin
April 6, 2023
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In early 2022, Cristal came forward about the horrific sexual abuse she 
suffered at the hands of multiple guards at the federal prison in 
Dublin, California <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/california> – 
one of dozens of victims to speak up about misconduct.

Today, rather than being reunited with her family after completing her 
sentence, she’s in immigration detention, awaiting deportation to Mexico 
– a country she left as a baby.

“My whole world dropped. 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). “It hurts me, 
because I was supposed to be protected. I trusted them and told them 
what I went through and this is how they treat me?”

Cristal’s nightmare is not an anomaly, but a common experience across 
the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), east of San Francisco. 
Indictments against five officers show that guards systematically 
victimized women in their custody, intimidated them into silence, lied 
<https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-federal-prison-warden-sentenced-more-five-years-prison-sexual-abuse-three> 
to cover up crimes and often targeted non-citizens 
<https://www.ktvu.com/news/dozens-of-dublin-prison-sex-survivors-face-deportation>. 
A coalition 
<https://www.centrolegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2.16.23-Organizational-Sign-on-Letter.pdf> 
of legal advocates says that at least 26 of those survivors are now 
facing deportation, including several who directly testified in court. 
At least eight victims have already been deported.

“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. “They need and 
deserve to return to their families and heal from the trauma they’ve 
endured at the hands of the government. Instead, the government is 
continuing to punish them.” (The Guardian is identifying Cristal by her 
middle name due to her ongoing retaliation concerns.)


    ‘They get away with it’

Cristal was 15 months old when her mother brought her to California, 
only returning to Mexico once for vacation. She endured a lifetime of 
violence, suffering years of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a 
stepfather, according to her immigration files, and repeatedly facing 
domestic abuse as an adult.

Despite the ongoing trauma, she worked to become a certified dental 
assistant: “As a single mother, it was hard to provide for my daughters, 
but I wanted to do anything and everything I could for my kids,” Cristal 
said.

Cristal was arrested in 2018 for allegedly importing drugs and pleaded 
guilty to a single offense, her first conviction. Although she is a 
longtime legal permanent resident, and previously obtained a special 
visa 
<https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/U-Visa-Immigration-Relief-for-Victims-of-Certain-Crimes.pdf> 
for victims of abuse, the felony case put her at risk of deportation.

When Cristal arrived at FCI Dublin in September 2019, guards put her to 
work as a cook. She was grateful for the job – it gave her just enough 
wages to buy hygiene products, she said. But almost immediately, an 
officer overseeing the kitchen began harassing her, she said, pressuring 
her to go to the backroom where there were no cameras; threatening to 
expose himself; rubbing and grabbing her from behind; demanding she 
“bend over”; and calling her demeaning names when she refused.

At least three other officers across the prison also abused her over 
three years, she said in a legal claim against the Bureau of Prisons 
(BoP). Cristal’s lawyers say she repeatedly saw FCI Dublin staff assault 
and**rape other women. One guard threw her against a wall after he found 
out she’d witnessed him abusing another detainee, she said. Another 
guard allegedly**locked her and her bunkmate in their cell and would not 
let them out until the bunkmate showed him her breasts.

“They harm you, thinking they can get away with it,” she said of the guards.


    ‘Targeted victims’

Cristal said she was**eventually contacted by a BoP investigator looking 
into abuse claims at the facility, and while terrified to speak up, she 
told him what she’d endured. She later also spoke to the FBI.

She//became one of many women who reported abuse at Dublin, an 
institution that, according to an Associated Press investigation 
<https://apnews.com/article/prisons-california-united-states-sexual-abuse-only-on-ap-d321ae51fe93dfd9d6e5754383a95801> 
last year, was widely known by staff and residents as “the rape club” 
due to its culture of rampant sexual violence.

In December, a jury convicted 
<https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-convicts-former-federal-prison-warden-sexual-abuse-three-female-inmates> 
Ray Garcia, the FCI Dublin warden at the time of Cristal’s 
incarceration, of sexually abusing three incarcerated women; forcing 
women to undress and takingtheir photos; and lying to the FBI. Before he 
was arrested, Garcia had led trainings 
<https://apnews.com/article/prisons-california-sexual-abuse-us-federal-bureau-of-investigation-93a168903fbeaed61f72fb9088e02dd4> 
on the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act and oversaw audits meant to 
prevent sexual violence. Three other officers, including one named as an 
abuser in Cristal’s complaint, have pleaded 
<https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-prison-chaplain-sentenced-sexual-assault-and-lying-federal-agents> 
guilty 
<https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-correctional-officer-sentenced-20-months-prison-abusive-sexual-contact-inmate> 
to similar crimes 
<https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-california-oakland-prisons-5085536a92b12afa46bbfcf00cba46d9>. 
A fourth 
<https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Sex-abuse-charges-against-former-Dublin-prison-17476669.php> 
is awaiting trial. Three officers identified in Cristal’s claim have not 
faced charges.

The Federal Correctional Institution is shown in Dublin, California.
The Federal Correctional Institution is shown in Dublin, California. 
Photograph: Ben Margot/AP

The criminal cases scratch the surface of the daily misconduct in 
Dublin, which has decades of documented 
<https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/03/17/opinion-sexual-abuse-of-women-at-bay-area-prison-enabled-by-federal-law/> 
sexual abuse cases, said Beaty. The advocacy coalition has interviewed 
more than 140 survivors of abuse and retaliation at the facility, they said.

“It’s extremely clear that staff systematically targeted the most 
vulnerable people for abuse, including non-citizens who they believed 
would be deported,” said Beaty.

One of their undocumented clients was repeatedly molested by a guard who 
told the woman he’d seen her file, Beaty recalled. “I know you’re going 
to Mexico,” the guard reportedly told the client. The woman, still in 
BoP custody, was too scared to report the abuse, Beaty said: “She told 
me: ‘It’s not a question of if they will retaliate against me, it’s a 
question of when and how.’”

“They target the ones who they assume won’t be able to speak up or press 
charges,” added Cristal.

When women tried to resist, guards fiercely retaliated, Cristal said. 
After her cellmate stopped having sex with one guard, he placed Cristal 
in solitary confinement for a month and fired her from her kitchen job, 
she said. Without wages from her kitchen job, she couldn’t buy 
essentials or snacks, she said; some days she’d go without food. When 
she returned from solitary, all her belongings had been trashed, 
including photos of her children, she said: “That hurt me the most, 
because I couldn’t replace them.”

After she spoke to investigators, staff called her a “snitch” and 
harassed her further*, *she said.


    ‘I just want to hold my daughter’

As Cristal’s sentence was ending last year, she prepared for her return 
home to San Bernardino county, in southern California.

A probation officer visited her mother’s home in anticipation of 
Cristal’s release. Cristal’s mother told the officer she was terrified 
Ice could deport her daughter: “I said I wouldn’t be able to survive 
that,” she recalled. But after the inspection, she was hopeful, telling 
Cristal’s kids, ages six and 12, that their mom was returning.

On 25 November inside Dublin, BoP called Cristal’s name for release: 
“It’s the day everybody fantasizes about. I was happy and excited – 
after five years being incarcerated to finally know your freedom is 
there, I was ready.”

As she exited, an Ice officer was waiting for her with chains.

“I thought I was going to hold my daughter in my arms and be close to 
her, and now she’s even farther away,” said Cristal’s mother, adding 
that probation arrived to her home days later to check on Cristal, 
unaware Ice had taken her: “I wish President Biden could see the look on 
my granddaughter’s face when her mom didn’t come home. Her daughters 
deserve more than just a few minutes with her in a visiting room. They 
deserve a lifetime with their mom.”

An unused high security housing unit at Northwest Ice Processing Center.
An unused high security housing unit at Northwest Ice Processing Center. 
Cristal is currently being held in an Ice facility in Tacoma, 
Washington. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

Centro Legal and the other groups representing victims have demanded Ice 
release detained survivors and witnesses of Dublin sexual abuse, halt 
their deportation cases and allow them to seek permanent relief from 
removal.

The Dublin scandal, advocates argued, illustrated how the Biden 
administration was continuing some of the cruel practices of Donald 
Trump’s deportation regime. Although Joe Biden has said he would 
prioritize removing people considered a “threat”, in practice the 
policies have continued to sweep up people with old criminal records 
<https://viewer.gutools.co.uk/us-news/2021/may/03/biden-deportations-vietnamese-refugee-california-ice> 
who have served their time, including refugees, longtime green card 
holders, exonerated individuals 
<https://viewer.gutools.co.uk/us-news/2022/may/02/conviction-overturned-deport-sandra-castaneda-immigration-california>, 
people at risk of severe violence 
<https://viewer.gutools.co.uk/us-news/2022/jun/28/queer-california-man-deportation-fiji-us> 
if sent to their birth countries, and victims of abuse.

One former Dublin victim in her 40s, who has already been deported, said 
she was struggling to get by in Mexico, where she was battling severe 
anxiety and depression and lived in fear her abuser, a former guard, 
could track her down: “I feel helpless. This system sees us incarcerated 
people and survivors as numbers. And we mean even less to them, because 
we’re not citizens.”

BoP declined to comment on Cristal’s case and whether the guards she 
named remained at FCI. Cristal’s claim identifies the officers by their 
last names, which is the only information her lawyers have been able to 
obtain; a spokesperson declined to share their full names with the 
Guardian and said BoP could not check their employment status without 
that information.

“We continue to fully support criminal investigations and prosecutions 
that hold staff accountable for sexual misconduct with incarcerated 
persons. We believe that holding staff accountable, to the fullest 
extent of the law, will serve as a deterrent against future misconduct 
by staff,” spokesperson Donald Murphy said in an email, adding that the 
agency maintains a “zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse”. The BoP has 
taken assertive action at FCI Dublin to make changes regarding safety 
and communication. While this work is not complete, it is a serious and 
ongoing effort.”

A spokesman for the US attorney’s office, which is prosecuting abuse 
cases, said the department had obtained immigration relief for FCI 
victims, but declined to say for how many or whether the agency was 
considering protection for Cristal or additional charges based on her 
claims.

An Ice spokesperson, Denise Hauser, declined to comment on Cristal’s 
immigration case and ongoing deportation proceedings against FCI 
victims, saying in an email that Ice remained “focused on smart, 
effective immigration enforcement that protects the homeland through the 
arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of our communities 
and the integrity of our immigration laws”. She said removal operations 
“target public safety threats, such as convicted criminal noncitizens 
and gang members, who have violated our nation’s immigration laws”.


    ‘Constant nightmares’

In Ice detention in Washington state, more than 1,100 miles away from 
her daughters, Cristal said she has no counseling and little to do all 
day besides one hour of recreation. Her thoughts race when she lies in 
bed, she said.

After surviving childhood abuse, “I learned how to numb those thoughts 
and feelings,” she said. “But going into prison, and it happening again, 
it awoke something in my brain and really damaged me more than I was 
already damaged.” She now has constant nightmares of the abuse.

“It hurts. I just wish they could see me as a human being. I deserve a 
chance to be with my kids.”
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