Whistleblowers Allege Fraud, Cover-Up at ICE Detention Center
Homeland Security’s inspector general had previously urged the immediate removal of detainees from the facility due to “critical staffing shortages.”
The Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico in 2022.
Photographer: Andres Leighton/AP Photo
A private prison operator regularly falsified documents during federal inspections of a migrant detention facility in New Mexico to cover up chronic understaffing and other shortcomings, according to a letter sent to Congress Tuesday based on allegations by whistleblowers who worked at the facility.
The letter urged Congress to investigate what it called “likely fraud” and “abusive conditions” at the Torrance County Detention Facility that allegedly violated the county’s contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and occurred with the knowledge of ICE and the facility’s private owner and operator, CoreCivic Inc. Almost three years ago, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general called for all ICE detainees to be immediately removed from the facility due to “critical staffing shortages.” Five months later, a detainee died by suicide.