Haitian detainee accuses Krome guards of attacking him. ICE asked to investigate
A Haitian detainee in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody has filed a complaint with two federal agencies alleging that he was severely beaten and put in a chokehold after being slammed to the ground by prison guards at the Krome detention center in South Miami-Dade County.
Herby “Herb” Yves Pierre-Gilles says he was in a cell getting treatment for mental health problems in December when the alleged assault took place. Immigration advocates are now demanding an investigation and asking ICE not to deport Pierre-Gilles until a fair and thorough probe of the incident takes place.
“We know that many who bravely come forward, like Mr. Pierre-Gilles, are retaliated against. They’re placed in solitary confinement, transferred away from community, or immediately deported so that their testimony does not see the light of day,” said Sofia Casini, director of visitation advocacy strategies for Freedom for Immigrants.
Freedom for Immigrants and the Immigrant Action Alliance, two non-profits, filed the complaint on Pierre-Gilles’ behalf Monday to the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Inspector General.
An ICE spokesman said the agency is unable to comment due to the ongoing investigation. ICE’s manual, which has a section on use of force and restraints, does authorize staff to use a degree of force necessary to gain control of detainees and, under specified conditions, they may use physical restraints to gain control of a dangerous detainee. The agency has said that it takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously.
This is not the first time ICE guards have been accused of mistreatment by detainees at the Krome detention center, or any number of detention centers around the country. In various parts of the U.S., immigrants have filed lawsuits about their mistreatment while in U.S. detention and have complained about retaliation for speaking out.
Since Oct. 2020, there have been at least four civil rights complaints calling for investigation of ICE officers’ and private prison guards’ illegal use of threats, coercion and direct force against Black immigrants detained, the immigration advocacy groups said. Advocates say they fear that the abuse fits within a long pattern of disparate treatment that Black immigrants experience within ICE custody, including within Florida immigration detention centers.
In a statement, Pierre-Gilles said he will not stop seeking the justice he feels he deserves.
“There are problems that exist within the Department of Homeland Security,” Pierre-Gilles said. “One of the biggest issues that [is] usually swept under the rug and hardly ever brought to the public’s attention is the physical abuse and mistreatment us immigrants received by the hands of the same government officials who took oaths to protect us. I pray and hope that my situation will be brought to the public’s attention so that a change can be made for the better.”
The full circumstances surrounding what occurred before the incident are unclear.
The suit said Pierre-Gilles was in a mental health cell when an officer kneed him in the face, causing his lips to burst in two places. His clothes, including his boxers, were violently ripped off of him by multiple female guards while a supervisor watched, he said.
“He was subsequently slammed to the ground and a guard got on top of him and started choking him,” the complaint said. “Mr. Pierre-Gilles states three cameras would have caught this violent beating and choke hold on video.”
Pierre-Gilles’ alleged assailants worked for Akima Global Services, which ICE has contracted for the Krome detention center. He later reported the attack to Freedom of Immigrants’ National abuse hotline.
“The abuse against Black immigrants detained is sadly something we have seen for years at Krome when monitoring human rights abuses of those detained,” said Wendy King, executive director for Immigrant Action Alliance. “It must be stopped immediately. We will continue to fight for his release, as well as the release of all people held in immigrant prisons.”
