BURLINGTON — When the Burlington Select Board last addressed its efforts to seek access to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in town, and the possible enforcement of local zoning laws on the facility, the board found little luck in the courts.
Nearly two months later, little has changed.
The Select Board met Monday with an agenda that included an update on the ICE facility at 1000 District Ave., which has been the site of protests for well over a year now after reports emerged last year about the alleged conditions for detainees inside.
Assistant Town Administrator Patrick Lawler said that in mid-July the town obtained an affidavit from a recent ICE detainee held in the building, which the town used to apply for an administrative search warrant for an inspection of the facility. The town had attempted to do so earlier this year, but that application was denied on the grounds that the court wanted to see an affidavit from a more recent detainee. The new affidavit was meant to meet that threshold, but instead Lawler said the town ran into another hurdle.
“We had to return to court the next day, and the application was not granted at that point because the court had requested a more recent denial for an inspection from the Department of Homeland Security,” said Lawler.
Lawler said when the town had requested an inspection of the building last year, DHS, the parent agency for ICE, had taken almost a month to respond.
“Recognizing that meeting the threshold that we talked about at that last meeting of the synchronicity of obtaining affidavits from detainees and now obtaining a fresh denial, we decided that on July 28 we would attempt to conduct an inspection in person at the ICE facility in order to essentially obtain that denial,” said Lawler.
That visit included local building and public safety officials, but Lawler said they were again denied entry. This led to another petition by the town to the Massachusetts District Court using the recent affidavit and fresh denial, which was again denied by a judge.
“Based on their legal analysis, the code violations we had cited based on the affidavit received only applied to state detention centers, not federal detention centers,” said Lawler.
Going forward, Lawler said the town will continue seeking new affidavits from recent detainees at the facility to “interpret whether there are reports of conditions or potential violations that are within other codes that may satisfy judicial intervention.”
Board member Sarah Cawley expressed frustration at the judge’s decisions.
“We went in once, they asked for something, we got it. We went in again, they asked for something, we got it. We went in again, then they ask for something completely different that was never even on our radar as an issue,” said Cawley. “It is a very, very frustrating situation … Dealing with this particular court we have to deal with seems like they are just looking for any excuse and every excuse to say no, to not help us, to not have to take a public stance on this and just to leave us hanging.”
Board member Michael Espejo thanked those who have been demonstrating regularly outside the facility, and those who provide assistance to people being released from detention.
“Especially when they do it late at night, when they help someone who has been released after 9 p.m., and doesn’t have a phone, or released in the rain. I’ve heard of citizens assisting people who have been released with no means to contact anyone,” said Espejo. “It makes me feel good about Burlington that we have people who care about complete strangers.”
Board member Nicholas Priest expressed confusion over the rejection by the courts due to the alleged zoning violations applying to state detention centers but not federal detention centers, when ICE and DHS have asserted that the facility is not a detention facility at all.
“From a town counsel perspective I would love to talk to them, perhaps in executive session so we can all hear the conversation, to understand why the judge seems to believe this is a federal detention center, when for the last year, two years we have been told that it is not, it is a processing facility,” said Priest.
In a statement to The Sun Tuesday afternoon, a DHS spokesperson again made the assertion that the facility in Burlington serves only as a processing center, not a detention center.
“The ICE Burlington field office complies with all required state and local laws. The Burlington Select Board does not have oversight of the facility,” said the DHS statement. “This is a processing facility, not a detention facility. Illegal aliens are quickly processed and transferred to permanent housing at a detention facility. ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies, and is committed to transparency.”
The spokesperson continued, “The ICE Burlington facility has an abundance of supplies, including food, assorted snacks, water, personal hygiene, and bedding materials. Detainees have access to a shower. In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”
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