Immigrant detainees allege sexual assault by guard who bought promoted

WASHINGTON — For greater than a 12 months, detainees at a California immigrant detention heart mentioned, they have been summoned from their dorms to a lieutenant’s workplace late at evening. Hours regularly handed, they mentioned, earlier than they have been despatched again to their dorms.

What they allege occurred within the workplace grew to become the topic of federal complaints, which accuse Lt. Quin, then an administrative supervisor, of harassing, threatening and coercing immigrants into sexual acts on the Golden State Annex in McFarland. An individual with that nameworked in a higher-ranking put up, as chief of safety, on the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana till August — the identical month The Occasions despatched inquiries to the corporate that operates the amenities.

The Division of Homeland Safety mentioned it couldn’t substantiate the allegations. In response to an lawyer for one of many detainees, the California Legal professional Normal’s workplace opened an investigation into the matter.

Immigrant advocates level to the case as one among many allegations of abuse in U.S. immigration amenities, inside a system which they are saying fails to correctly examine.

In three complaints reviewed by The Occasions that have been filed beneath the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), to a watchdog company and with DHS, detainees accused Quin of sexual assault, harassment and different misconduct. The complainants initially knew the lieutenant solely as “Lt. Quinn,” and he’s known as such within the federal complaints, although the right spelling is “Quin.”

The complaints additionally allege different facility workers knew about and facilitated abuse, perpetuating a tradition of impunity.

An exterior view of a detention facility.

The California and Louisiana amenities are each operated by the Florida-based non-public jail big, the GEO Group.

A Dec. 10, 2024, put up on Instagram Threads seems to allude to points Quin confronted in California. The put up photos him standing in entrance of a GEO Group flag and states: “Allow me to reintroduce myself … You’ll respect my authority. They tried to hinder me, however God intervened.”

Requested concerning the accusations, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Safety public affairs secretary, mentioned in an announcement that allegations of misconduct by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff or contractors are handled critically and investigated totally.

“These complaints have been filed in 2024 — nicely earlier than present DHS management and the required reforms they carried out,” McLaughlin wrote. “The investigation into this matter has concluded, and ICE — by way of its personal investigation reviewed by [the DHS office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties] — couldn’t substantiate any grievance of sexual assault or rape.”

The GEO Group didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Advocates for the detainees say they’re undeterred and can proceed to hunt justice for individuals they are saying have been wronged.

Advocates additionally say the potential for abuse at detention amenities will develop because the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown brings such amenities to document inhabitants ranges. The inhabitants of detained immigrants surpassed a excessive of 61,000 in August, in response to TRAC, a nonpartisan analysis group.

The allegations in opposition to Quin by a 28-year-old detainee are detailed in his FTCA grievance, a precursor to a lawsuit, filed in January with DHS. The grievance seeks $10 million for bodily and emotional damages.

The Occasions usually doesn’t determine alleged victims of sexual abuse and is referring to him by his center preliminary, E.

McLaughlin’s response didn’t deal with the FTCA grievance that particulars E’s sexual assault allegations.

Reached by cellphone, Quin informed The Occasions, “I don’t converse with the media,” and referred a reporter to the Golden State Annex. After being learn the allegations in opposition to him and requested to reply, he hung up.

E alleged abuse in interviews with The Occasions, and in a recorded interview with an lawyer, which shaped the idea for the FTCA grievance.

Within the grievance, he mentioned that starting in Might 2023, Quin would name him right into a room, the place no cameras or workers have been current, to say he had been given a quotation or that guards had complained about him.

Sooner or later, the grievance alleges, Quin rubbed his personal genitals over his pants and commenced making sexual feedback. E informed Quin he felt uncomfortable and needed to return to his dorm. However Quin smirked, dragged his chair nearer and grabbed E within the crotch, the grievance says.

After E pushed Quin away and threatened to defend himself bodily, the grievance alleges, Quin made his personal menace: to name a “code black” — an emergency — that will summon guards and go away E dealing with prices of assaulting a federal officer.

As a substitute, E mentioned, Quin referred to as for an escort to take him again to his dorm.

After that, the late-night summons — typically at midnight or 2 a.m. — elevated, E mentioned in his grievance. Every time, Quin continued to rub his genitals over his garments, in response to the grievance.

The grievance alleges Quin repeatedly provided to assist with E’s immigration case in change for sexual favors. Then Quin discovered E is bisexual and E alleged Quin threatened to inform his household throughout a go to. Afraid of his household discovering out about his sexuality, E mentioned within the grievance, he lastly acquiesced to letting Quin contact his genitals and carry out oral intercourse on him.

“I simply, I ended up doing it,” E mentioned in a recorded interview together with his lawyer.

Afterward, the grievance says, Quin informed E that he would ensure that to assist him, and that nobody would discover out.

The grievance alleges that Quin introduced E contraband items, together with a cellphone, and, round Christmas, a water bottle stuffed with alcohol.

“I really feel soiled,” E mentioned within the recorded interview. “I really feel ashamed of myself, you recognize? I really feel like my dignity was simply nowhere.”

E mentioned in his grievance {that a} workers member informed him in December 2023 {that a} guard had reported Quin to the warden after noticing E had been out of his dorm for a very long time; the guard had reviewed safety cameras exhibiting Quin giving E the bottle of alcohol.

E mentioned the staffer informed him that Quin was quickly suspended from interacting with detainees, and the late-night summons stopped for some time.

Lee Ann Felder-Heim, staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, in San Francisco.

A second, earlier grievance alleging mistreatment on the McFarland facility was filed on E’s behalf in August 2024 by the Asian Legislation Caucus with the DHS Workplace of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).

That grievance alleges that different GEO Group workers focused him with sexually harassing and degrading feedback. It doesn’t deal with E’s sexual assault allegations, as a result of E mentioned he was initially too afraid to speak about them.

As soon as, when E was mendacity on his abdomen in his cell, a guard commented loudly to different workers that he was ready for a go to from Quin; the guard made a movement of placing her finger by way of a gap, insinuating that E sought to interact in sexual activity, the grievance states.

The broader concern isn’t one individual, “however relatively a system of impunity and abuse,” mentioned Lee Ann Felder-Heim, a workers lawyer on the Asian Legislation Caucus. “The reviews make it clear that different workers have been conscious of what was occurring and really have been aiding in making it occur.”

Along with detailing E’s personal experiences, the grievance additionally particulars abuse and harassment of 5 different detainees. One detainee is transgender, a truth that will play a task in how federal officers investigated the grievance.

In February and March, CRCL despatched Felder-Heim letters saying it had closed the investigations into all however one case of alleged sexual abuse and harassment — together with these relating to Quin — citing, as justification, Trump’s First-Day govt order regarding “gender ideology extremism.” The order prohibits utilizing federal funds to “promote gender ideology,” so Felder-Heim mentioned it seems the investigations have been shut down as a result of one of many complainants is transgender. The opposite case was closed earlier on the deserves.

She referred to as the investigation course of flawed and “wholly insufficient.”

E filed a 3rd grievance with one other oversight physique, the Workplace of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. To his information, no investigation was initiated.

In March, the Trump administration shut down three inside oversight our bodies: CRCL, OIDO and the Citizenship and Immigration Providers (CIS) Ombudsman. Civil rights teams sued the next month, prompting the company to resurrect the places of work.

However staffing on the places of work was decimated, in response to sworn courtroom declarations by DHS officers. CRCL has gone from having 147 positions to 22; OIDO from about 118 to about 10; and the CIS Ombudsman from 46 to about 10.

“All legally required capabilities of CRCL proceed to be carried out, however in an environment friendly and cost-effective method and with out hindering the Division’s mission of securing the homeland,” mentioned McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman.

Michelle Brané, who was the immigrant detention ombudsman beneath the Biden administration, mentioned the civil rights workplace usually had first dibs on complaints about sexual assault. She recalled the grievance about Quin however mentioned her workplace didn’t examine it as a result of the civil rights workplace already was.

Brané mentioned the lower in oversight amid elevated detention will inevitably exacerbate points resembling allegations of sexual assault. Worse circumstances additionally make it tougher to rent high quality workers, she mentioned.

Across the identical time that E was held at Golden State Annex, a homosexual couple from Colombia reported in April 2024 to the OIDO that Quin had sexually harassed them.

D.T., 26, and C.B., 25, have been separated upon arrival at Golden State Annex. D.T. started to expertise extreme anxiousness assaults, they mentioned within the Asian Legislation Caucus grievance and in an interview with The Occasions. The couple requested to be positioned in the identical dormitory.

Earlier than granting their request, Quin requested what they’d give him in return, the couple recounted within the grievance. Afterward, the grievance alleges, he regularly invited them to his workplace, saying they owed him.

“We by no means accepted going to his workplace, as a result of we knew what it was for,” C.B. informed the Occasions.

Of their grievance, they allege that Quin requested D.T. if he needed to have intercourse and informed C.B., “You belong to me.”

The couple grew to become conscious that Quin had additionally harassed different detainees and gave preferential therapy to those that they believed accepted his requests for sexual favors, in response to the grievance; one detainee informed them that he had grabbed Quin’s hand and positioned it on his penis to keep away from being taken to solitary confinement for beginning a combat.

D.T. mentioned in an interview with The Occasions that he believes “under him are many individuals who by no means mentioned something.”

In a Dec. 2, 2024, inside facility grievance from Golden State Annex reviewed by The Occasions, one other detainee alleges that Quin retaliated in opposition to him for talking out in opposition to misconduct.

Within the grievance and in an interview with The Occasions, the detainee mentioned he spoke up after, on a number of events, watching one other man stroll to Quin’s workplace late at evening and are available again to the dorm hours later. He additionally mentioned within the grievance that Quin introduced in marijuana, cellphones and different contraband.

One other witness, Gustavo Flores, 33, mentioned Quin acknowledged him as a former Golden State Annex detainee when he was briefly transferred to the Alexandria facility, simply earlier than his deportation to El Salvador in Might.

Quin pulled Flores apart and provided to uncuff him and get him lunch in change for cleansing the foyer; after he completed, Quin introduced him into his workplace, the place he peppered Flores with questions on Golden State Annex, Flores mentioned.

Flores mentioned he requested about sure staffers and detainees. He informed Flores individuals needed to sue him, calling them “crybabies.”

“He’s telling me every little thing, like, ‘Oh yeah, I do know what goes on over there,’” Flores mentioned.

When E tried to finish the sexual encounters, his grievance says, Quin threatened to have him despatched to a detention facility in Texas or have his deportation expedited.

In October 2024, E was transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Heart in Bakersfield.

Heliodoro Moreno, E’s lawyer, mentioned the California Legal professional Normal’s Workplace confirmed to him in February that it was investigating. An investigator interviewed E in April and once more in Might, he mentioned, and the investigation stays open.

California Division of Justice spokesperson Nina Sheridan declined to touch upon a possible investigation. However in an announcement she mentioned the workplace stays vigilant of “ongoing, troubling circumstances” at detention amenities all through California.

“We’re particularly involved that circumstances at these amenities are solely set to worsen because the Trump Administration continues to ramp up its inhumane marketing campaign of mass deportation,” she wrote.

E, who had a pending declare for a particular standing often called withholding of removing, dropped his case within the ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals. Moreno mentioned his consumer wished to not be detained.

“It’s very unlucky that he’s in these circumstances,” Moreno mentioned. His consumer was compelled to forgo his appellate rights and go away “with out actually getting a conclusion to receiving justice for what occurred to him.”

He was deported late final month.