INS Abused Inmates, Suit Claims

Ten former inmates at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center in El Centro filed suit against the agency Thursday, claiming that they had been physically abused there last summer.

The plaintiffs allege that guards at the facility took detainees to isolated areas of the compound and beat them, either for supposed acts of disrespect or for no reason at all.

Named as defendants in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego are the U.S. government, various guards at El Centro and several other INS officials, including James Turnage, the service’s district director in San Diego.

Rudy M. Murillo, a spokesman at the INS regional office in Laguna Nigel, denied the allegations but declined further comment.

The El Centro facility, known officially as a Service Processing Center, usually houses about 350 foreign nationals, most of whom are undergoing deportation proceedings, Murillo said.

Most are from Latin America--usually citizens of Mexico or one of the Central American republics--but the facility often holds nationals from more than a dozen nations.

Among the plaintiffs filing the suit Thursday are four Salvadorans, three Nicaraguans, and one citizen each of Mexico, Chile and Ethiopia.

One of the goals of the legal action is to prompt internal reforms at the center, said Edward J. Flynn, litigation attorney for the Central American Refugee Center, the Los Angeles-based legal advocacy group that is providing counsel to the 10 former prisoners.

“It’s essential that the INS institute some kind of meaningful investigation of abuse,” Flynn said.

INS officials say all allegations of abuse are investigated thoroughly, and that personnel found culpable are sanctioned.

Of the 10 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Flynn said, most remain in the United States. The others have been deported, he said.