A Powder Springs man is suing for his release from a federal immigration detention center in South Georgia, arguing his nearly five-month confinement has harmed his mental health, caused him to have seizures, and violated his constitutional rights.
Juan Carlos Ruiz-Arenas’ habeas corpus petition alleges the government has placed him on antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs and kept him on “suicide watch,” isolated from other detainees.
A federal judge has ordered the privately-run Stewart Detention Center to present Arenas at a court hearing on the matter in Columbus Wednesday afternoon.
The case touches on a hot-button issue long debated in Washington: the use of solitary confinement in the nation’s immigration detention system. Legislative efforts to overhaul that practice are stalled in Congress.
Arenas trembled and hyperventilated during an interview Friday at the sprawling detention center outside the small town of Lumpkin.
“I miss my family,” he told reporters before bowing his head and sobbing. “I miss my kids. I love my family. I want my family.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Arenas has been segregated from other detainees twice — once for 16 days at his own request and once for two days for “medical observation.”
Arenas denied he asked to be isolated, though he said he fears other detainees whom he identified as Mexican drug cartel members.
Arenas, who is married to a U.S. citizen, has been confined since October, when he was arrested for driving without a license in Woodstock. He is fighting deportation to Mexico, where he fears he will be hunted by drug gangs because of his past work as a police officer there.
Arenas, who says he has been beaten and shot at by the violent Zetas cartel, has established a “reasonable fear of persecution” in his native country, the government concluded in a January report.
ICE said Arenas has been returned to Mexico 11 times, mostly by Border Patrol authorities. He has been held in detention while he fights his deportation in immigration court, according to ICE, because of his “long history of disregard for U.S. immigration law.” If he wins his immigration case, he could be allowed to stay in the U.S.
Immigrants who come here legally and marry U.S. citizens can apply for legal permanent residency here. Those who come here illegally and marry U.S. citizens are required by law to leave the U.S. to apply for their green cards. Those like Arenas who come here illegally two or more times are permanently barred from immigrating to the U.S., even if they are married to U.S. citizens.
ICE has come under intense criticism for its use of solitary confinement. Critics say it is wrong to isolate people being held on immigration violations, which are civil offenses. They say the practice causes psychological harm.
Arenas’ court petition says his “mental health situation has deteriorated substantially due to his detention, his placement in isolation and issues with the medication he has been placed on while in detention.”
However, activists for stronger immigration controls say authorities must have the ability to use segregation to maintain safety and security, particularly since some people slated for deportation have health problems or are affiliated with violent gangs.
“Clearly, solitary confinement is appropriate when medical conditions determine it is needed to protect the prisoner from himself or to protect other inmates,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group that advocates for tougher immigration enforcement. “And these determinations are made by competent authorities — medical professionals and prison officials.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in April that ICE, on average, was placing about 300 immigrants in solitary confinement each week. Nearly half of those placed in isolation were held there for 15 days or longer. And nearly 11 percent were mentally ill. At the Stewart Detention Center, about 20 detainees facing deportation, on average, were isolated each week across more than four months in 2012, ICE’s records show.
Most people are segregated, according to ICE, for disciplinary reasons or to protect them and others from harm. Last year, the agency said less than 1 percent of its more than 33,000 detainees are placed in solitary confinement, and that most are isolated for only a few days at a time.
But in September, ICE issued a new policy limiting the use of solitary confinement in federal immigration detention centers. The ICE directive says isolation should be used “only as a last resort” for people with special vulnerabilities, including mentally ill people, the elderly, and pregnant or nursing women, and that alternatives to isolation should be considered. And it mandates new reporting requirements and oversight.
ICE issued its directive just a few months after the Democratic-led U.S. Senate passed bipartisan immigration legislation that includes new limits on the use of solitary confinement. The GOP-controlled U.S. House has refused to take up the Senate bill, partly because it includes a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
Arenas’ records show frequent meetings with medical authorities at Stewart. During one of those visits in February, an official asked him whether his illness “had something to do with his immigration case and the fact that he was trying to find a way not to be deported,” his petition says.
Arenas’ pro bono attorneys say this shows he is not receiving impartial medical care, an accusation the government denies.
“It is just incredibly frustrating that he is receiving treatment from the same people who are trying to remove him,” said Rebecca Rojas, one of his attorneys.
Arenas’ wife, Edna Ruiz, said she has struggled financially while her husband has been away. A receptionist with three children from a previous marriage, Ruiz said her husband suffered from nightmares about his ordeals in Mexico before he was detained.
But she said there is no question he has changed in the months he has been held at Stewart. During an interview at her home in Powder Springs, she said Arenas is now depressed and forgetful, he repeats himself, and he is experiencing tremors and numbness.
Ruiz said her husband is afraid of showing these symptoms for fear he will be placed back in solitary confinement. She worries about what could happen to him if he remains at Stewart.
“Honestly,” she said, “he would go crazy.”
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