The New York Civil Liberties Union and several nonprofits are suing the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials over alleged violations to detainees’ rights at the federal detention center in Batavia.
The NYCLU is joined by Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights in the complaint filed earlier this month against the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility.
The complaint alleges that ICE officials at the facility have been making copies of detainees’ legal mail — like correspondence with legal representatives, news media, government officials, and courts — and retaining and reading the original letter.
“In over a dozen instances observed by Prisoners’ Legal Services of NY’s detained client, ICE officers have read an individual’s legal mail while copying the mail,” the complaint said.
The complaint further alleges that officers have been confiscating legal documents during in-person meetings between detainees and their attorneys.
“The policy prevents people in immigration detention, and lawyers like us, from relying on the written communications necessary to relay important and deeply personal information about their immigration cases — greatly increasing their risk of prolonged detention or deportation,” Amy Belsher, Director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the NYCLU said in a statement. “As the Trump Administration takes increasingly unlawful steps to try to enact mass deportations, the First Amendment rights of people forced into detention facilities like Batavia must be respected and upheld.”
The controversial mail policy at the Batavia detention center allegedly began in 2023 but was paused after some months before being reinstated in November last year, according to the legal complaint.
“ICE’s new mail policy is a flagrant violation of confidentiality and privacy, the bedrock of the attorney-client relationship,” Sarah Decker, staff attorney at RFK Human Rights said in a statement. “It also has a chilling effect on detained people’s ability to report abuse and inhumane conditions without fear of retaliation.”
A spokesperson with the NYCLU says a motion in court is due the first week of April.
Spokespersons for ICE and DHS did not respond to requests for comment.
