Winnfield, LA – Today, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Cornell Law School Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic, and the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition filed a federal complaint on behalf of detained individuals at Winn Correctional Center, a notorious ICE facility in Louisiana. The complaint, which was submitted to the Department of Homeland Security’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office (CRCL), outlines the widespread lack of translation and interpretation services at Winn, leading to adverse outcomes in asylum cases, prolonged detention, and delays in medical care.
The complaint was submitted after interviews with detained individuals revealed consistent language access issues for those with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). From September 2023 to March 2024, Cornell Law student attorneys and supervisors interviewed 21 detained individuals, many of whom described being unable to understand or complete crucial asylum documents; limited day-to-day communication with facility staff; and delays receiving medical care due to a lack of interpreters.
“While working in Winn, our clinic team encountered numerous immigrants with so little access to language resources that there was no way they could present their case,” said Professor Jakki Kelley-Widmer, clinical professor at Cornell Law School. “Speaking to detained people through phone interpreters, we were sometimes the first to communicate with these individuals in their language, even though they had been detained for weeks or months. We hope the government will recognize the miscarriage of justice that is happening daily at Winn and close the facility.”
“People who are fighting their removal while indefinitely detained at Winn face enormous obstacles that make winning nearly impossible, regardless of the merits of their case,” said Lucy Oh, clinical student at Cornell Law School. “They are required to fill out complex immigration forms in a language they do not understand and with no access to basic legal resources in their language, all while living in horrible, abusive conditions. Dignity and due process are a fiction at Winn.”
According to ICE’s own standards, immigration detention facilities are required to protect LEP immigrants from discrimination and unfair removal proceedings. Despite these regulations, ICE and LaSalle Corrections, the private prison company which operates Winn, regularly fail to provide detained individuals with resources in a language they can understand.
The complaint documents instances of LEP individuals being punished for refusing to sign documentation in a language they could not understand or waiting months to move forward in the asylum process because they could not communicate in English. The lack of translation and interpretation services also negatively impacts detained individuals’ ability to represent themselves – which is especially problematic as the majority of people detained at Winn are left to defend their asylum claims on their own, with no legal assistance.
“Language access is crucial for safeguarding other rights in detention,” said Sarah Decker, staff attorney at RFK Human Rights. “When detained individuals are unable to communicate, they can face life-threatening barriers in accessing medical and mental health care. When language needs are not met, people are more likely to experience prolonged detention or retaliation such as placement in solitary confinement when they don’t understand instructions from guards.”
Winn Correctional Center has been the subject of complaints from advocates and detained individuals for years. Given the facility’s history of systemic failures – including the inability to provide language access to detained people – the participating organizations call upon DHS to shut down Winn.
“An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s CRCL in 2021 found that Winn had conditions leading to mistreatment and recommended reducing the detainee population to zero until issues were addressed,” said Martha Alguera, community organizer with the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition. “Language barriers in detention centers delay immigration processes and negatively impact people detained. We demand immediate language access and translation services in all Louisiana detention centers. If we, as a volunteer organization, can find interpreters, then so can the management and ICE officers at Winn Correctional. Above all, Winn Correctional Center should be immediately shut down and no longer be allowed to detain anyone at this facility.”
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that has worked to realize Robert F. Kennedy’s dream of a more just and peaceful world since 1968. In partnership with local activists, RFK Human Rights advocates for key human rights issues, championing change makers and pursuing strategic litigation at home and around the world. And to ensure change that lasts, we foster a social-good approach to business and investment and educate millions of students about human rights and social justice.
Cornell Law School’s 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic provides first-year and advanced students with the experience of counseling clients on immigration cases, performing research and writing for real cases, and engaging in community advocacy on emerging immigration issues. One of only two 1L-focused clinical courses in the nation, the clinic focuses on innovative work on behalf of undocumented and DACA communities through the Path2Papers Project and on advocacy for detained immigrants and asylum seekers. Cornell Law School’s robust and thriving experiential learning program is an essential part of its educational mission, encompassing twenty-three clinics and practicum courses and an extensive array of externships and simulation courses.
The Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition is a group of immigrants, children of immigrants, advocates, organizers, legal workers, justice seekers and community members who share resources, organize and take action together to end the caging and surveilling of people in the southeastern region of the U.S. This includes seeking the permanent closure of all immigration detention centers run by private prison companies and localities under the authority of the New Orleans ICE Field Office. Follow the SDND coalition at https://linktr.ee/sdndcoalition and @sedignitynotdetentioncoalition.