WASHINGTON — For greater than a 12 months, detainees at a California immigrant detention heart mentioned, they have been summoned from their dorms to a lieutenant’s workplace late at evening. Hours ceaselessly handed, they mentioned, earlier than they have been despatched again to their dorms.
What they allege occurred within the workplace grew to become the topic of federal complaints, which accuse Lt. Quin, then an administrative supervisor, of harassing, threatening and coercing immigrants into sexual acts on the Golden State Annex in McFarland. An individual with that nameworked in a higher-ranking submit, as chief of safety, on the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana till August — the identical month The Instances despatched inquiries to the corporate that operates the services.
The Division of Homeland Safety mentioned it couldn’t substantiate the allegations. In response to an legal professional for one of many detainees, the California Legal professional Normal’s workplace opened an investigation into the matter.
Immigrant advocates level to the case as one in all many allegations of abuse in U.S. immigration services, inside a system which they are saying fails to correctly examine.
In three complaints reviewed by The Instances that have been filed beneath the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), to a watchdog company and with DHS, detainees accused Quin of sexual assault, harassment and different misconduct. The complainants initially knew the lieutenant solely as “Lt. Quinn,” and he’s known as such within the federal complaints, although the proper spelling is “Quin.”
The complaints additionally allege different facility employees knew about and facilitated abuse, perpetuating a tradition of impunity.
The Golden State Annex, a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement detention facility, in McFarland final 12 months.
(Larry Valenzuela / CalMatters / CatchLight Native)
The California and Louisiana services are each operated by the Florida-based personal jail big, the GEO Group.
A Dec. 10, 2024, submit on Instagram Threads seems to allude to points Quin confronted in California. The submit photos him standing in entrance of a GEO Group flag and states: “Allow me to reintroduce myself … You’ll respect my authority. They tried to hinder me, however God intervened.”
Requested in regards to the accusations, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Safety public affairs secretary, mentioned in an announcement that allegations of misconduct by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff or contractors are handled severely and investigated totally.
“These complaints have been filed in 2024 — nicely earlier than present DHS management and the required reforms they applied,” McLaughlin wrote. “The investigation into this matter has concluded, and ICE — by way of its personal investigation reviewed by [the DHS office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties] — couldn’t substantiate any criticism of sexual assault or rape.”
The GEO Group didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Advocates for the detainees say they’re undeterred and can proceed to hunt justice for individuals they are saying have been wronged.
Advocates additionally say the potential for abuse at detention services will develop because the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown brings such services to report inhabitants ranges. The inhabitants of detained immigrants surpassed a excessive of 61,000 in August, in keeping with TRAC, a nonpartisan analysis group.
The allegations in opposition to Quin by a 28-year-old detainee are detailed in his FTCA criticism, a precursor to a lawsuit, filed in January with DHS. The criticism seeks $10 million for bodily and emotional damages.
The Instances typically doesn’t determine alleged victims of sexual abuse and is referring to him by his center preliminary, E.
McLaughlin’s response didn’t deal with the FTCA criticism that particulars E’s sexual assault allegations.
Reached by telephone, Quin instructed The Instances, “I don’t communicate with the media,” and referred a reporter to the Golden State Annex. After being learn the allegations in opposition to him and requested to reply, he hung up.
E alleged abuse in interviews with The Instances, and in a recorded interview with an legal professional, which shaped the idea for the FTCA criticism.
Within the criticism, he mentioned that starting in Could 2023, Quin would name him right into a room, the place no cameras or employees have been current, to say he had been given a quotation or that guards had complained about him.
At some point, the criticism alleges, Quin rubbed his personal genitals over his pants and commenced making sexual feedback. E instructed Quin he felt uncomfortable and needed to return to his dorm. However Quin smirked, dragged his chair nearer and grabbed E within the crotch, the criticism says.
After E pushed Quin away and threatened to defend himself bodily, the criticism alleges, Quin made his personal menace: to name a “code black” — an emergency — that may summon guards and go away E dealing with fees of assaulting a federal officer.
As a substitute, E mentioned, Quin referred to as for an escort to take him again to his dorm.
After that, the late-night summons — generally at midnight or 2 a.m. — elevated, E mentioned in his criticism. Every time, Quin continued to rub his genitals over his garments, in keeping with the criticism.
The criticism alleges Quin repeatedly provided to assist with E’s immigration case in trade for sexual favors. Then Quin discovered E is bisexual and E alleged Quin threatened to inform his household throughout a go to. Afraid of his household discovering out about his sexuality, E mentioned within the criticism, he lastly acquiesced to letting Quin contact his genitals and carry out oral intercourse on him.
“I simply, I ended up doing it,” E mentioned in a recorded interview together with his legal professional.
Afterward, the criticism says, Quin instructed E that he would be certain that to assist him, and that nobody would discover out.
The criticism alleges that Quin introduced E contraband presents, together with a telephone, and, round Christmas, a water bottle filled with alcohol.
“I really feel soiled,” E mentioned within the recorded interview. “I really feel ashamed of myself, you already know? I really feel like my dignity was simply nowhere.”
E mentioned in his criticism {that a} employees member instructed him in December 2023 {that a} guard had reported Quin to the warden after noticing E had been out of his dorm for a very long time; the guard had reviewed safety cameras displaying Quin giving E the bottle of alcohol.
E mentioned the staffer instructed him that Quin was briefly suspended from interacting with detainees, and the late-night summons stopped for some time.
Lee Ann Felder-Heim, employees legal professional with the Asian Legislation Caucus, which filed a criticism with the federal authorities alleging mistreatment of detainees on the Golden State Annex in McFarland.
(Maria del Rio / For The Instances)
A second, earlier criticism alleging mistreatment on the McFarland facility was filed on E’s behalf in August 2024 by the Asian Legislation Caucus with the DHS Workplace of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).
That criticism alleges that different GEO Group employees focused him with sexually harassing and degrading feedback. It doesn’t deal with E’s sexual assault allegations, as a result of E mentioned he was initially too afraid to speak about them.
As soon as, when E was mendacity on his abdomen in his cell, a guard commented loudly to different employees that he was ready for a go to from Quin; the guard made a movement of placing her finger by way of a gap, insinuating that E sought to interact in sexual activity, the criticism states.
The broader situation isn’t one particular person, “however fairly a system of impunity and abuse,” mentioned Lee Ann Felder-Heim, a employees legal professional on the Asian Legislation Caucus. “The reviews make it clear that different employees have been conscious of what was happening and really have been helping in making it occur.”
Along with detailing E’s personal experiences, the criticism additionally particulars abuse and harassment of 5 different detainees. One detainee is transgender, a reality that may play a task in how federal officers investigated the criticism.
In February and March, CRCL despatched Felder-Heim letters saying it had closed the investigations into all however one case of alleged sexual abuse and harassment — together with these relating to Quin — citing, as justification, Trump’s First-Day govt order regarding “gender ideology extremism.” The order prohibits utilizing federal funds to “promote gender ideology,” so Felder-Heim mentioned it seems the investigations have been shut down as a result of one of many complainants is transgender. The opposite case was closed earlier on the deserves.
She referred to as the investigation course of flawed and “wholly insufficient.”
E filed a 3rd criticism with one other oversight physique, the Workplace of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. To his information, no investigation was initiated.
In March, the Trump administration shut down three inside oversight our bodies: CRCL, OIDO and the Citizenship and Immigration Companies (CIS) Ombudsman. Civil rights teams sued the next month, prompting the company to resurrect the places of work.
However staffing on the places of work was decimated, in keeping with sworn courtroom declarations by DHS officers. CRCL has gone from having 147 positions to 22; OIDO from about 118 to about 10; and the CIS Ombudsman from 46 to about 10.
“All legally required capabilities of CRCL proceed to be carried out, however in an environment friendly and cost-effective method and with out hindering the Division’s mission of securing the homeland,” mentioned McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman.
Michelle Brané, who was the immigrant detention ombudsman beneath the Biden administration, mentioned the civil rights workplace typically had first dibs on complaints about sexual assault. She recalled the criticism about Quin however mentioned her workplace didn’t examine it as a result of the civil rights workplace already was.
Brané mentioned the lower in oversight amid elevated detention will inevitably exacerbate points corresponding to allegations of sexual assault. Worse situations additionally make it more durable to rent high quality employees, she mentioned.
Across the identical time that E was held at Golden State Annex, a homosexual couple from Colombia reported in April 2024 to the OIDO that Quin had sexually harassed them.
D.T., 26, and C.B., 25, have been separated upon arrival at Golden State Annex. D.T. started to expertise extreme anxiousness assaults, they mentioned within the Asian Legislation Caucus criticism and in an interview with The Instances. The couple requested to be positioned in the identical dormitory.
Earlier than granting their request, Quin requested what they’d give him in return, the couple recounted within the criticism. Afterward, the criticism alleges, he ceaselessly invited them to his workplace, saying they owed him.
“We by no means accepted going to his workplace, as a result of we knew what it was for,” C.B. instructed the Instances.
Of their criticism, they allege that Quin requested D.T. if he needed to have intercourse and instructed C.B., “You belong to me.”
The couple grew to become conscious that Quin had additionally harassed different detainees and gave preferential remedy to those that they believed accepted his requests for sexual favors, in keeping with the criticism; one detainee instructed them that he had grabbed Quin’s hand and positioned it on his penis to keep away from being taken to solitary confinement for beginning a struggle.
D.T. mentioned in an interview with The Instances that he believes “beneath him are many individuals who by no means mentioned something.”
In a Dec. 2, 2024, inside facility grievance from Golden State Annex reviewed by The Instances, one other detainee alleges that Quin retaliated in opposition to him for talking out in opposition to misconduct.
Within the grievance and in an interview with The Instances, the detainee mentioned he spoke up after, on a number of events, watching one other man stroll to Quin’s workplace late at evening and are available again to the dorm hours later. He additionally mentioned within the grievance that Quin introduced in marijuana, cellphones and different contraband.
One other witness, Gustavo Flores, 33, mentioned Quin acknowledged him as a former Golden State Annex detainee when he was briefly transferred to the Alexandria facility, simply earlier than his deportation to El Salvador in Could.
Quin pulled Flores apart and provided to uncuff him and get him lunch in trade for cleansing the foyer; after he completed, Quin introduced him into his workplace, the place he peppered Flores with questions on Golden State Annex, Flores mentioned.
Flores mentioned he requested about sure staffers and detainees. He instructed Flores individuals needed to sue him, calling them “crybabies.”
“He’s telling me all the pieces, like, ‘Oh yeah, I do know what goes on over there,’” Flores mentioned.
When E tried to finish the sexual encounters, his criticism says, Quin threatened to have him despatched to a detention facility in Texas or have his deportation expedited.
In October 2024, E was transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Middle in Bakersfield.
Heliodoro Moreno, E’s legal professional, mentioned the California Legal professional Normal’s Workplace confirmed to him in February that it was investigating. An investigator interviewed E in April and once more in Could, he mentioned, and the investigation stays open.
California Division of Justice spokesperson Nina Sheridan declined to touch upon a possible investigation. However in an announcement she mentioned the workplace stays vigilant of “ongoing, troubling situations” at detention services all through California.
“We’re particularly involved that situations at these services are solely set to worsen because the Trump Administration continues to ramp up its inhumane marketing campaign of mass deportation,” she wrote.
E, who had a pending declare for a particular standing generally known as withholding of elimination, dropped his case within the ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals. Moreno mentioned his consumer wished to now not be detained.
“It’s very unlucky that he’s in these circumstances,” Moreno mentioned. His consumer was compelled to forgo his appellate rights and go away “with out actually getting a conclusion to receiving justice for what occurred to him.”
He was deported late final month.
