Christina Fialho

This week Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) released seven audio recordings and videos documenting arbitrary use of solitary confinement, sexual assault, physical abuse by federal agents, prolonged detention, retaliatory transfers, and other aspects of life inside U.S. immigration detention...

“These immigration detention facilities almost operate outside of U.S. law,” said Christina Fialho, the co-founder of CIVIC, an organization that seeks to expose abuses in detention facilities. “If you’re a non-citizen in immigration detention, you’re not afforded many of the safeguards of the constitution. Because these facilities are so isolated, people don’t have access to people that can advocate on their behalf.”

"Holding immigrants in privately run detention centers doesn't benefit anyone but the companies that manage them," said Christina Fialho, whose organization, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement, operates visitation programs at 32 immigrant detention facilities. Fialho, whose group organized a protest outside the Adelanto facility Monday, said its remote location 40 miles north of San Bernardino makes it difficult for families and attorneys to visit.