by Julie Yates | Apr 6, 2020 | Client profiles, Immigration
Recently CREEC’s Immigration Detention Accountability Project (IDAP) expanded its services to include a robust Help Desk component. The number of migrants and asylum seekers who are being detained in immigration prisons or denied entry at the U.S. border has increased dramatically; so, too, has the number of medically vulnerable and people with disabilities in that population. The conditions for people with disabilities and the medically vulnerable who are detained in immigration jails are stark and their rights are routinely infringed or completely ignored. Many immigration attorneys, advocates, and directly impacted people on the frontlines of this crisis need additional support as they work at the intersection of disability and immigration law. CREEC can help. CREEC’s Help Desk was established to provide quick, effective technical assistance in our areas of expertise to those who will benefit the most. Given the ever-growing human and civil rights violations at our borders and in immigration prisons, and further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we anticipate significant growth in the need for the kind of technical assistance CREEC can provide. Overall, the Help Desk has given assistance to more than 50 people since its inception. Below are just a few recent examples of people who have received assistance through CREEC’s Immigration Detention Accountability Project Help Desk. Anderson Avisai Gutierrez Mr. Anderson Avisai Gutierrez is a 27-year-old Guatemalan asylum seeker detained at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana. Despite an attempt to die by suicide and severe mental health disabilities, Mr. Gutierrez has been placed in solitary confinement for over eight months, where his mental health has further deteriorated. Jennifer Savage, a volunteer with...
