""I cried so much because I don't like people to see me naked, especially police," the woman said in Spanish. "It's one of the most humiliating things one can go through.""
"She fled Venezuela after police there persecuted her, including by gang raping her repeatedly, she said."
"Generally, ICE detention standards require facility officials to have a "reasonable suspicion" of contraband before performing a strip search."
"The section about visitation allows a facility to conduct strip searches after contact visits without reasonable suspicion only if the facility offers a noncontact option for visits and informs detainees about the policy in a language they understand."
A woman from Venezuela detained at Otay Mesa was required to strip completely naked in front of a facility guard after a visit. The experience caused intense humiliation and retraumatization because the woman had been gang raped repeatedly in Venezuela. Many detainees and volunteer visitors report that strip searches occur after first visits and that most detainees learn of the practice only when told to strip, squat, and cough. ICE standards generally require reasonable suspicion before strip searches and allow post-contact-visit searches without suspicion only if noncontact visits are offered and detainees are informed in a language they understand. ICE did not respond to requests for comment. CoreCivic stated that the facility provides information about strip searches in the detainee handbook.
Read at Truthout
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]