Latina detainees were forced to walk in raw sewage

CEC lost ICE prisoners due to negligence


Waco – McLennan County Commissioners learned that Latina detainees held in a privately-operated lockup were forced to live in filthy conditions involving raw sewage from backed-up toilets.

As a result, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security removed 80 of the prisoners and transferred them to a lockup operated at Taylor, Texas, by the Corrections Corporation of America, a Tennessee corporation.

Said former probation officer Robert Aguilar, “They had to walk in it in the day time and they had to smell it at night.” Mr. Augilar characterized the situation as one that “borders on criminal activity...negligence on medical care.”

He said that the female detainees were guilty only of entering the U.S. illegally.

“None of them had federal offenses against them. They came over here to work.”

According to Precinct 1 Commissioner Kelly Snell, “CEC didn't come to us with anything, but then, they don't have to. It's like renting a house. As long as you pay your rent, you don't have to worry about it...They've never been written up for anything else – to our knowledge.”