Tag Archive for: Mario Paredes

Outcry over conditions at Plymouth County Correctional Facility

Outcry over conditions at Plymouth County Correctional Facility

community groups call for ICE detainees’ release

The Scope Boston
By Marigo Farr
December 16, 2021

Four immigrant justice organizations have detailed how immigrant detainees at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility face “patterns of mistreatment” — including lack of appropriate and timely medical services, physical abuse, discriminatory language, retaliation against individuals who voice grievances and barriers to outside communication and legal support.

The groups —  Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN), AMOR and Never Again Action Boston — summarized their findings in a letter to the Plymouth Sheriff’s office, which runs the facility, and the federal Immigrant and Customs Enforcement field office in Boston. More than 60 other nonprofits, churches and community groups have signed on. 

Plymouth County Correctional Facility, which holds between 100 to 200 immigrants at any given time through a “bed contract” with ICE, is the sole remaining ICE detention facility in Massachusetts. The “All Eyes on Plymouth” letter calls for an end to this contract, which can be terminated at any time, and the detainees’ immediate release. It was sent in September and neither the Sheriff nor ICE responded. 

“I lost my dignity being detained by ICE,” said Marco Battistotti in an interview with the Scope. 

Battistotti, an Italian immigrant, was detained at Plymouth jail from September 2020 to December 2020 and was one of dozens who received support from Prisoners’ Legal Services. He was transferred to Plymouth from Bristol’s jail after a similar public outcry led to the termination of its contract with ICE. 

In a series of notarized documents sent to PLS, Battistotti described medical neglect, intimidation, placement in segregation, voyeurism by an officer while showering and denial of access to his attorney.

Immigrants at Plymouth jail are from a range of countries, some having entered the U.S. without documentation or having fallen out of status. They were either picked up directly by ICE on the streets of Massachusetts, handed over to ICE by local law enforcement or transferred from other facilities, sometimes out of state. 

For Mario Paredes, an attorney at Prisoners’ Legal Services, the concern is not just how a facility is managed — he feels there’s something systemic at play. For him, the campaign is part of a larger conversation to “end partnerships between states and immigration.” 

“Our goal is for Massachusetts to not be involved in the detention of immigrants,” said Paredes, “… because there are various community-based programs … that can serve the same purpose without subjecting folks to incarceration.”

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Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department Plans to Terminate 287(g) Agreement with ICE

PLYMOUTH COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT PLANS TO TERMINATE 287(G) AGREEMENT WITH ICE

September 10, 2021
Mario Paredes, PLS Staff Attorney

Today, Sheriff McDonald announced that Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) plans to terminate their 287(g) Agreement with ICE. These 287(g) agreements allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enter into formal written agreements with state or local law enforcement agencies and deputize selected state and local law enforcement officers to perform certain functions of federal immigration agents. For county jails like PCCF this most often includes identifying folks in their custody who may be foreign-born and running their names through DHS databases in order to transfer noncitizens into federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody directly upon their release from state/local custody. Since PCSD also has a separate Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) with ICE, that provides for space in their jails for the detention of immigrants, this has resulted in PCSD continuing to detain immigrants in their facility even after they are legally required to be released from state/local custody.

The termination of this agreement is important considering that these agreements have resulted in widespread racial profiling, served as a waste of taxpayer resources and funneled immigrants into an immigration detention system that is fraught with human rights violations. Nevertheless, it is important to note that Sheriff McDonald confirmed that he has no intentions of ending their Intergovernmental Service Agreement with ICE. This means that hundreds of immigrants at PCSD will continue to be subjected to the critical health risks posed by COVID-19 and other deprivations of liberty and legal rights that have existed since before the pandemic, including: 1) physical and verbal abuse,2)  lack of appropriate medical, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment, 3) limited access to attorney phone calls and legal resources, 4) lack of religious accommodations and 5) inadequate interpretation and translation services for English Language Learners.

Therefore, it is imperative that PCSD and ICE listen to affected community members, attorneys, and advocates who are calling for the termination of their IGSA agreement and the release of immigrants back to their communities. For too long, ICE has been tearing families apart and traumatizing immigrant communities across the Commonwealth. As the last standing county in Massachusetts with an IGSA ICE contract, PLS believes that this is the opportune time for Sheriff McDonald to end PCSD’s overall collaboration with ICE and allow immigrant communities to live freely, and with dignity. 

Concern About COVID-19 Spikes Among Immigration Attorneys As A Boston Courtroom Is Closed

CONCERN ABOUT COVID-19 SPIKES AMONG IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS AS A BOSTON COURTROOM IS CLOSED

March 19, 2020
WBUR
By Shannon Dooling

Concerns over exposure to COVID-19 are increasing among Boston’s immigration attorneys after one of the courtrooms in Boston abruptly closed earlier this week.

Mario Paredes is a staff attorney working jointly with Prisoners’ Legal Services and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. He says the groups are hearing concerns from detained immigrants across New England.

“We are hearing a lot of worry from those who are still in detention that there hasn’t been enough guidance provided to them,” Paredes says. “Also, in certain places we’ve heard that there’s not enough soap being provided to immigrants who are detained and newly detained immigrants who are coming into the system.”

Paredes says offering more release options to detained individuals during the COVID-19 crisis would reduce the burdens on attorneys and courts while also reducing the chance of exposure to the highly contagious virus.

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Mansfield panel describes border conditions for immigrants and asylum seekers

MANSFIELD PANEL DESCRIBES BORDER CONDITIONS FOR IMMIGRANTS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS

November 25, 2019
WickedLocal Mansfield
Paula Vogler

MANSFIELD – While the images of conditions at the Mexico border may have faded into the background for many people, a recent meeting sponsored by the Mansfield Democratic Town Committee sought to remind people of what is still happening to immigrants and asylum seekers there.

The number of people held in detention centers has increased under every president for more than 25 years according to Mario Paredes, a lawyer with Prisoner Legal Services and the Immigrant Detention Conditions Project.

He said while there are 220 adult immigration facilities around the country, three of those are in Massachusetts facilities in Bristol, Plymouth and Franklin counties that are run by the county sheriffs.

“Oversight is the biggest issue with detention centers,” Paredes said. “Each detention center has its own set of standards it’s supposed to be abiding by; they are not pinned down to any one set of standards.”

He said immigrants who reach out for help run the risk of assault within a facility or being moved to a different facility far away from family and friends.

While since 2009 Congress requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to step in to control any facility that fails two inspections, Paredes said since that time, no facility has failed; there is a 100 percent inspection pass rate now.

He said the Immigration Detention Conditions Project seeks to “ensure legal services for this population.” While he hears stories anecdotally, he said the group wants to collect facts.

“Right now we are making a concerted effort to collect information so down the line we can use it for advocacy,” Paredes said. “We want to provide resources for self-help as well.”

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