MEMORANDUM
To:

Victor Cerda, Acting Director, Office of Detention and Removal

Cc:

ABA Commission on Immigration

From: American Bar Association Delegation to the Queens Detention Center
Re:

Report on Observations during a General Tour of the Queens Detention Center in
Queens,NY

Date: September 15, 2004

I.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service created a set ofthirty-eight

standards ("Standards") designed to ensure secure and humane treatment of immigration
detainees at detention facilities. The American Bar Association tasked delegations to tour
various detention facilities. Our delegation! visited the Queens Detention Center, Queens, New
York ("QDC"), a detention facility to which the Standards apply, to determine implementation
of the Standards related to access to legal assistance and basic treatment. The delegation toured
QDC for approximately three hours on March 10, 2004. This report ("Report") is based on
observations by the delegation during the tour, as well as discussions with QDC staff, interviews
with three ex-detainees and with an attorney from a legal services provider with clients at QDC,
and follow-up communications with QDC staff.
The delegation determined that QDC had implemented many sections of the Standards
related to legal access and basic treatment. There were, however, some significant areas of
concern. Aside from treatment concerns, and severe limits of the physical facilities, essential
legal materials available to detainees were inadequate and dated, harming, rather than facilitating
detainees' ability to prepare asylum claims. Space for detainees and word processing equipment
in the law library were unduly limited and ex-detainees reported instances of access to the law
library below the minimum required by the Standards.

Members of the delegation are listed at the end of the Report.

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and (d) follow-up communications with QDC. Two of the three ex-detainees had been released
from QDC within days of the delegation's visit, and both had been detained there for multiple
years. The third detainee had been detained at QDC for almost a month in 2003. In some
instances, ex-detainee reports were compatible with statements made by Facility personnel
and/or observations by delegation members. In such cases, the delegation was able to detennine
whether QDC had implemented the Standards and the QDC Detainee Handbook ("Handbook:')
that governs rules and procedures at QDC. 4 However, in certain instances, ex-detainee reports
conflicted with statements made by Facility personnel. Where we were unable to verifY the
conflicting reports, the delegation was unable to detennine implementation. 5

B.

General Information About QDC
1.

Detainee Classification

The Standards require that all facilities develop and implement a system according to
which detainees are classified generally based on security risk, and that the system "ensure[s]
that each detained alien is placed in the appropriate category and physically separated from
detainees in other categories."6 Classification is to be detennined by a variety of objective
factors, including a history of arrests or criminal convictions, a history of violence, and incidents
within a detention facility.? Classification is to be done at intake and is to be made visible, e.g.,
through a "color-coded unifonn and wristband based on [the detainee's] classification level."8 A
detainee's classification may change, including via an appeal process, and if it does the colorcoding changes. 9

QDC has implemented this section of the Standards. The Handbook generally tracks
the Standards and provides notice of an appeals process regarding classification of detainees. 10
OIC Regis told the delegation that ICE has three unifonn colors that correspond to a detainee's

4
5
6

?

8

9
10

Handbook, p. 4.
Drafts of the Report were provided to QDC for comment. QDC provided written and oral comment that
the delegation incorporated into this fmal Report.
Standards, Detainee Classification System, Section 1.
Standards, Detainee Classification System, Section III.D.
Standards, Detainee Classification System, Section II1.B.
Standards, Detainee Classification System, Sections II1.G-H.
Handbook, pp. 6-7.

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