INS Separates 8 Hunger Strikers, Moves Them From El Centro Lockup

U.S. immigration authorities, responding to a hunger strike by eight Central Americans jailed at the INS detention facility in El Centro, have moved the strikers to separate facilities in California and Arizona amid allegations that one of the men has been beaten and others have been verbally abused and denied blankets.

The six Salvadorans and two Guatemalans are protesting INS plans to deport them to their native lands. All have applied for political asylum in the United States based on the likelihood of political persecution if returned to Central America, said Carmen Mejia, an El Centro paralegal who has represented several of the men.

The migrants, none of whom has legal status in the United States, are citing an upsurge in violence in both nations to protest impending deportations.

At least one of the strikers has claimed that he was beaten and several others have said that they were denied blankets as punishment last weekend, Mejia said.

Rudy Murillo, an INS spokesman in San Diego, denied any abuse of the men and said that separating them was “standard procedure” in such cases, a move designed to “diffuse” the possibility of problems. The blankets were not withheld but were only being washed for a day, Murillo said.

“I hope the carpeting was to their satisfaction,” he said. “We have longstanding procedures that have worked before and will work again in these cases.”

Murillo contended that one of the men, Carlos Morales Jordan, a 32-year-old Guatemalan and alleged beating victim, may have feigned his purported injuries.

Morales contends that guards beat him in a bathroom at the El Centro camp Monday or Tuesday, said Richard Garcia, executive director of Centro de Asuntos Migratorios, a Chula Vista-based legal firm that represents migrants. Morales, complaining of seizures, was taken Wednesday to the El Centro Regional Medical Center, where, according to the INS, no injuries were found. He was returned the same day to the El Centro detention facility, Mejia said.

The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General for Investigations, a kind of internal affairs unit, is conducting a preliminary review of the beating allegations, said Ralph Paige, San Diego-based regional inspector general.

In the past two days, four of the hunger strikers have been sent to San Diego-area INS lockups, two others have been sent to an INS facility in Florence, Ariz., and one has been sent to an INS jail in Inglewood, Calif. Morales, the alleged beating victim, remained in El Centro.

The eight began their hunger strike Saturday and have refused solid food since then, said Mejia. They have been drinking water, she said. Several others who initially participated in the protest have since dropped out.

Inmates at El Centro, which houses about 450 prisoners, more than one-quarter of them Central Americans, have launched hunger strikes periodically over the years. All of those being held there are unable to post bond as they await the outcome of immigration-related legal proceedings, including cases for deportation, asylum and other matters. Some of the hunger strikers are convicted felons who have already served their time in California prisons and were referred to the INS for deportation, according to Murillo, the INS spokesman.

At the heart of their protest is a longstanding complaint that the asylum process is heavily politicized and prejudiced against nationals from El Salvador, Guatemala and other U.S. allies. U.S. immigration officials vehemently deny the allegation, maintaining that the system is impartial. Asylum is a status that allows foreigners to remain in the United States rather than be exposed to persecution in their home nations, based on political beliefs, race, religion or other factors.

In 1989, according to INS figures, fewer than 4% of asylum applicants from El Salvador and Guatemala were actually granted asylum; the majority of applicants were ordered deported. The governments of both nations are right-wing and have friendly relations with the United States. By contrast, critics note that asylum applicants from Nicaragua and other leftist governments are more likely to be granted temporary residence status in the United States.