"I never imagined receiving this inhumane treatment": Immigrant arrests soar despite Biden's promises

By Philip Marcelo and Gerald Herbert- The Associated Press.

Alexander Martínez says he fled homophobia, government persecution, and the notorious MS-13 gang in El Salvador only to find abuse and harassment from the United States' immigration detention system.

Since crossing the border illegally in April, the 28-year-old has passed through

six different centers in three states.

The Salvadoran says he has contracted COVID-19, that he has faced racist taunts and abuse by guards and that he has been harassed by other detainees for being gay.

"I am emotionally unstable because I have suffered so much in detention,

" Martinez told The Associated Press news agency last week at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana.

"I never imagined or expected to receive this inhumane treatment," he

added.

Martínez is among the growing number of people in immigration detention centers across the country, many of whom, like him,

have passed the initial screening to seek asylum in the United States.

The number of

detainees

has more than doubled since the end of February, to nearly

27,000

as of July 22, according to the most recent data from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

That figure is up from the nearly

22,000 detainees last July under then-President Donald Trump

, although it is nowhere near the record from August 2019, when the number of detainees surpassed 55,000, according to ICE data.

Alexander Martinez inside the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, on Friday, July 30, 2021.AP / Gerald Herbert

The surge in arrests is a sore spot for President Joe Biden's pro-immigration allies, who hoped he would reverse his predecessor's hard-line approach.

Biden campaigned to end "lengthy" detentions and the use of private

immigrant detention

prisons

, which house the majority of those detained by ICE.

"We're in a really weird time with him," said Silky Shah, executive director of the Detention Watch Network, which advocates ending immigration detention.

"There is still time to change things, but

his policies so far have not lived up to his campaign rhetoric," he added.

[The number of children detained at the border reached a record in July, according to preliminary data]

In May, the Biden administration terminated contracts with two controversial ICE detention centers - one in Georgia and one in Massachusetts - and received praise from advocates who hoped it would be the start of a broader policy.

But no other facility has lost its contracts with ICE, and Biden has proposed funding

32,500 immigrant detention beds

in his budget, a modest decrease from the

34,000 funded by Trump.

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A White House spokesman said Biden's budget reduces the number of ICE detention beds and shifts some of its use to processing immigrants for parole and other alternatives.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a recent congressional hearing that he is "concerned about the excessive use of detention" and pledged to keep checking troubled facilities.

The increase in the number of asylum seekers detained for long periods is one of the most worrying developments

, according to Heidi Altman, director of policy at the National Center for Immigrant Justice.

[At least 10 dead and more than a dozen injured when a van overturned in Texas carrying migrants]

The number of detainees who have passed the initial asylum examination has risen from about

1,700 in April to 3,400 at the end of July

, representing about 13% of all detainees, according to the most recent data from ICE.

"By ICE's own policy,

these are people who should not be kept in custody

," Altman said, citing the agency's process for releasing asylum seekers until a judge decides their case.

ICE officials declined to comment.

Martínez passed his initial exam in May, which determines whether an asylum seeker has a "credible fear" of being persecuted in his country.

But his lawyers say ICE is keeping him in custody because they mistakenly believe he is a member of the Mara Salvatrucha.

[Hidalgo and Mcallen issue declaration of local disaster due to increase in migrants and COVID-19 cases]

Martínez says he fled El Salvador after he and his family

received death threats

because he testified against the gang in the murder of one of his friends.

According to him, investigators tried to get him to testify in other murders related to the gang, but he was reluctant because he had not witnessed those crimes.

"I was very scared

," Martinez said.

"I told the investigators that I was going to leave the case. I did not want to continue with the process because I do not want them to harm my family, and less to me," he added.

ICE officials in New Orleans declined to comment on Martinez's case and specific concerns about treatment at the Winn prison, citing federal confidentiality rules for cases involving victims of violence and other crimes.

Winn, one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country, has long been irritating to civil rights groups.

The Southern Poverty Law Center asked the Biden administration in June to cancel its contract with the government, citing abuse, medical malpractice, racism and other mistreatment at the center, which is hidden in dense forest in rural Louisiana and surrounded barbed wire.

As of last month, more than 80% of those detained had been apprehended by Border Patrol officers, and

less than 20% by ICE agents

, according to ICE data.

Last July, under Trump's mandate, 40% of those detained were picked up by the Border Patrol, and 60% by ICE.

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That means

most of the detainees were apprehended trying to enter the country illegally, and not by local immigration law enforcement

, said Andrew Arthur, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration.

"We are simply not enforcing immigration law in the interior of the country," he

said.

Back in Louisiana, Martinez says he has asked to be placed in isolation, fearing for his safety.

Two detainees who harassed him for being gay were transferred, but ICE officials later sent him to a higher security unit where he says many gang-affiliated detainees are housed.

He says that he spends most of the day in his cell, with limited access to communications and leisure.

"It's really difficult and miserable, and I'm alone all the time

," Martinez said.

"I am a good person.

This treatment is inhumane,

" he said.

And he said he wants to settle in San José, California, where a friend promised to help him find work.

And he wants to send money to El Salvador: his mother has cancer and his younger sister is in college.

"I just want what everyone wants

," Martinez said,

"to get out, be free, and help support my family."