A federal court in the Southern District of Indiana has ruled for the second time that individuals who suffered flooded cells and poor sanitation at the Clay County Jail can move forward with their lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Court determined that the individuals’ arguments that ICE allowed Clay County to openly misuse funds meant to ensure that noncitizens were detained in better conditions, can move forward. Represented by attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center, plaintiffs Maribel Xirum, Javier Jaimes Jaimes, and Baijebo Toe seek to represent a class of all individuals detained by ICE at the jail.
In the August 8 decision, the Court agreed with Plaintiffs that ICE’s alleged failure to take enforcement action against Clay County’s unlawful diversion of funds is “extreme,” and found that judicial review “seems particularly warranted” in light of the broader allegations that ICE has “consciously and expressly adopted a policy of non-enforcement for violations of federal laws governing the permissible uses of federal funds by non-Federal entities, like Clay County.”
"For years, ICE has looked the other way as Clay County brazenly misappropriates funds earmarked for the care and custody of people detained by ICE at Clay County Jail, while those housed at the jail suffer in egregiously substandard conditions," said Mark Feldman, a senior litigation attorney at NIJC.
For example, the lawsuit details that in 2020, Clay County received $1.4 million from ICE to detain noncitizens. Clay County took more than half of that as “profit,” which the County diverted to unrelated expenses. And in 2021, the County misappropriated over $80,000 of ICE detention funding to purchase a new air conditioning for the County courthouse, which was unrelated to immigration detention.
The lawsuit alleges that ICE unlawfully turned a blind eye while Clay County neglected its obligation to attend to the care and custody of individuals in the jail, and instead focused on profit-taking.
In addition to the misuse of federal funds, the lawsuit also details how ICE’s detention inspections system has permitted unsanitary conditions and human suffering inside the jail. The court allowed plaintiffs to proceed with that claim in March 2023.
"Both ICE and Clay County have disclaimed responsibility, arguing that once ICE gives Clay County funds for detention, ICE can't tell the County what to do with it,” said Feldman. “Governing regulatory and statutory provisions say otherwise - ICE must ensure that funds given to counties for ICE detention are properly used for the care and custody of people in ICE detention. NIJC applauds the Court's decision which wholly denies ICE's attempt to evade accountability for Clay County's misuse of federal funds."
Read more about the case here.
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