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Discrimination against asylum seeker with disability in NM leads to national policy change
Edgar Garrido Diaz came to the U.S. seeking safety from his home country.
In August 2022, Garrido Diaz suffered a knee and ankle injury during recreation time while detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Cibola County detention center in northwestern New Mexico.
A few weeks after that, federal immigration officials tried to deport him. They made his injury worse because officers kept Garrido Diaz in leg shackles for nearly an entire day, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found.
The federal investigation, from lawyers representing Garrido Diaz, concluded the immigration officials responsible for his detainment and deportation discriminated against him while he suffered a physical disability.
This spurred a national policy change in how Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers restrain people with disabilities that are temporary or permanent.
鈥淚t is not human to treat me the way they did,鈥� Garrido Diaz told Source NM.
The policy changes, sent to the attorneys who evoked the investigation, include new requirements for ICE to individually assess how people with disabilities are restrained and new guidance from the civil rights and civil liberties division within the federal Department of Homeland Security.
Sophia Genovese is the managing attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, the organization that filed the complaint last year on behalf of Garrido Diaz. She said this policy change will have a nationwide impact on people who are commonly being hurt by restraints.
It鈥檚 an update that鈥檒l no longer affect Garrido Diaz since ICE deported him nine months ago, in September 2022.
Genovese said while her center doesn鈥檛 think there should be restraints or even detainment at all, this policy change is one step in the right direction.
鈥淲e hear constantly from folks that they feel like they鈥檙e being treated like criminals and they鈥檙e being treated worse than animals,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd the treatment doesn鈥檛 make sense for the type of proceeding that they鈥檙e in.鈥�
Last year, CoreCivic 鈥� the private prison company that operates the Cibola detention center 鈥� told Source NM the complaint allegations from Garrido Diaz aren鈥檛 true and don鈥檛 reflect the center鈥檚 policies.
CoreCivic spokesperson Brian Todd said the company stands by that statement.
He said Cibola has a detention standard compliance officer to make sure the center adheres to ICE standards and policies. He added that the facility is independently accredited by the American Correctional Association, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the justice system.
鈥淐ibola, like all of our immigration facilities, is monitored very closely by our government partner and required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living for all detainees,鈥� Todd said via email.
Beyond having his sprained ankle shackled, Garrido Diaz said the Cibola County detention center guards mistreated him and the bathrooms were unsanitary.
ICE didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.
How this happened
After an immigration judge denied Garrido Diaz鈥檚 asylum claim last year, his deportation was imminent.
In July 2022, Garrido Diaz was sleeping at the detention center in Cibola County when federal guards woke him up around midnight to deport him, according to the federal investigation findings.
Garrido Diaz, having previously sustained an ankle injury, got his walker and joined the officers on a trek to be sent back to his home country, the homeland security complaint response says. Although it had been a few weeks prior since he injured his knee and ankle during recreation, the wound was still prominent.
CoreCivic officials previously diagnosed him with a grade three ankle sprain, something that can take weeks to heal.
Around 2:30 a.m., ICE officers put leg restraints on Garrido Diaz, according to homeland security. Garrido Diaz said he was in intense pain and asked repeatedly for immigration and customs enforcement officers to take off the restraints.
The shackles stayed on for nearly 19 hours, finally getting removed that evening around 9:20 p.m., the investigation found.
ICE denies that Garrido Diaz asked for the restraints to come off, according to the complaint response.
鈥淚CE claimed that had he made the request, the restraints would have been adjusted if deemed necessary and/or appropriate according to policy,鈥� the report reads.
A few weeks later, upon seeing an orthopedic specialist, the investigation revealed that Garrido Diaz was diagnosed with a grade four ankle sprain, worse than the original injury he sustained.
Now almost a year later, Garrido Diaz told Source NM that he still has pain in his ankle, especially when he drives a lot for work, which he does often.
鈥淢y right foot, which is the one with my injury, hurts a lot,鈥� he said. 鈥淓ven to this day, it is still swollen.鈥�
In his home country, he said there are parallels to poor conditions he lived through in the U.S. He said he鈥檚 constantly working to make enough to live and unable to speak up about political matters.
鈥淚 went to the 近距离内射合集 States looking for support,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd here (in my home country) are the same precarious conditions.鈥�
He said he can鈥檛 afford to seek asylum in another country.
The federal findings
As a result of Garrido Diaz鈥檚 experience, ICE is required to do individualized assessments when restraining people with disabilities, according to the homeland security response.
It also says the DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office plans to give more guidance and recommendations to ICE on how to handle these types of situations.
According to the federal investigation, ICE shouldn鈥檛 have restrained Garrido Diaz around his legs like officers did in the first place because he had a clear disability.
Immigration officers are normally authorized to restrain people during transportation. But that鈥檚 not always the case for people who have disabilities.
Homeland security officer Peter Mina, who wrote the investigation findings and complaint response, said ICE officials should have known Garrido Diaz could鈥檝e been an exception from his obvious difficulty walking and bandaged injuries as well as his medical records.
Mina said ICE officers could鈥檝e removed or adjusted the leg restraints without any 鈥渦ndue financial or administrative burden鈥� and still been within policy standards.
鈥淚CE鈥檚 own policy allows for exceptions for individuals with physical disabilities or injury, and there is no indication in the record that Complainant posed a safety or security threat to himself or to those around him,鈥� Mina wrote.
Garrido Diaz said he hopes the ICE guards and officers will actually follow the new requirement. But from his own experience, he said, nobody鈥檚 really supervising them or looking out for what the migrants are going through.
鈥淔rom the bottom of my heart, I hope that my case and what I was able to expose will be of some use,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd that they apply with this policy and that no one goes through what I went through.鈥�
Editor鈥檚 notes: Source NM did not disclose Garrido Diaz鈥檚 country of origin in its article due to safety concerns. Daniela Pino del Pino interpreted the interview with Garrido Diaz and translated the interview recording from Spanish to English.
