Judge orders Broadview ICE facility to improve detainee conditions

A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday ordered authorities to improve conditions at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, after former detainees sued alleging they had been held in overcrowded, unsanitary and coercive conditions. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued a 14‑day temporary order directing ICE and other officials to provide basic hygiene items, bedding and adequate sleeping space, regular cleaning, access to medication and private phone calls to attorneys at the west suburban site.

The order requires officials to provide every person held overnight with a clean sleeping mat and sufficient space to sleep, soap, towels, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste and menstrual products; to ensure showers at least every other day; to serve three nutritionally adequate meals daily with drinking water and bottled water on request; and to make prescribed medications available and properly stored. Holding rooms must be cleaned twice daily, and detainees must be given a list of pro bono immigration lawyers in English and Spanish. The court also directed authorities not to present detainees with deceptive documents to sign and...