It’s no longer just a barbed social media meme to insist the Trump administration has turned the nation’s stock of immigrant detention centers into concentration camps.

As you read this, and right here in Aurora, people are illegally confiscated and rounded up, denied their constitutional rights  regarding search and seizure and habeas corpus, held without judicial access in prisons such as the for-profit GEO ICE detention facility in Aurora, and treated cruelly and inhumanely, even to the point of illness and death.

The proof of this gross injustice has been repeatedly exposed by members of Congress and a growing group of organizations unwilling to stand by and watch the United States become a pariah nation to the civilized world.

Despite the lawless and soulless Trump administration and its illegal pursuit of deportation, there comes a point at which a government’s mistreatment of people becomes indefensible, regardless of political allegiance.

The GEO Group’s privately operated ICE detention center in Aurora has reached that point.

The evidence is no longer limited to isolated complaints or political rhetoric. A recent accountability report compiled 56 complaints from 49 people detained at the facility. The leading complaints are denial of medical care, abusive or unprofessional conduct by staff and poor food. People also widely report racial discrimination, being called “undesirable,” denial of basic bathroom privacy and restrictions on cleaning supplies.

In one recent case, a sick detainee reportedly received no medical care, and the illness spread through a cell housing eight people. 

This isn’t just poor management. It is a profound failure of acting with humanity and accountability, and it’s not happening in isolation.

Immigrants and their attorneys have shown that federal agents in Colorado are detaining people without warrants despite a federal judge’s preliminary injunction requiring warrants in most cases, according to reporting by Colorado Public Radio and the Associated Press.

One immigrant said an ICE officer broke his car window, dragged him to the ground and caused significant pain. Another, an 18-year-old who had a work permit and was delivering food, said officers pointed long guns at him, shoved him against a wall and punched him in the face.  

Even more alarming is what happens when those who are detained are placed inside the Aurora facility.

A confirmed tuberculosis case has prompted local, state and congressional officials to demand answers through government channels and the court. Yet ICE and GEO have hampered an investigation by failing to cooperate with health department requests, even going so far as to say that a state law ensuring the Aurora GEO ICE facility does not become a deadly concentration camp is “unfairly” picking on the prison company.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has sued GEO to compel cooperation. GEO has sought to move that lawsuit to federal court. 

This is not just a problem for detainees or prison employees. Infectious disease doesn’t cower behind a detention-center fence. Some detainees will eventually return to the community. Even a public apathetic about the inmates has an obvious interest in knowing whether tuberculosis has spread and whether appropriate testing and treatment are occurring.

The same pattern of dismissal appeared when detainees reported what they believed was a gas leak, as reported by the Sentinel. They described strong odors, headaches, vomiting, faintness and eye pain. ICE called the reports an outside hoax. Meanwhile, congressional staff inspecting the facility later found ventilation and cooling problems in the very pod where detainees reported the odors, with temperatures reaching 80 degrees. While GEO officials said the gas-leak complaints came from outside the prison, Aurora Fire Rescue officials said they were called inside the prison.

Without even a modicum of transparency, private, for-profit immigrant detention must end.

Justice can’t be outsourced to a corporation whose operations are shielded from meaningful public scrutiny. Taxpayers should not finance a system in which officials will not provide basic information about how many people are confined inside, whether infectious diseases are spreading or whether detainees’ most basic complaints are being investigated.

Aurora Rep. Jason Crow and other public officials have made Herculean efforts to inspect the facility and force answers.  The consistent evidence from those outside the prison has made it clear neither GEO nor the Trump administration can be trusted to tell the truth about what’s going on inside.

Americans can disagree passionately about immigration enforcement. They can support deportation and still insist that the government obey the law, the courts, the Constitution and global norms of treating people humanely.

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