Affidavit of Mich González, Esq.
Re: Incident Inside Immigration Detention on April 6, 2023
My name is Mich P. González, and the below statements are accurate, truthful, and complete to the best of my knowledge and recollection.
1. I work with the 501(c)(3) non-profit, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), as the Associate Director of Advocacy for its immigrant detention legal services project, the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI). SIFI provides free legal services to immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the Southeast United States, primarily in Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
2. On the morning of April 5, 2023, I arrived to 830 Pinehill Rd, Jena, Louisiana 71342, as I have on several occasions over the past two years, to meet with current or prospective clients and provide them with legal information or assistance. This address is the location of the private prison that ICE contracted private prison company GEO Group to run for the purpose of detaining non-citizens placed in civil removal proceedings beginning in 2007, just seven years after the same company (then known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp.) was forced to end its operation of the facility as a juvenile jail.[1]
3. On this two-day (April 5–6, 2023) visit to conduct group legal rights presentations, which was approved in advance by ICE and GEO Group, I was accompanied by three colleagues from SPLC-SIFI together with volunteer professors and law students from Cornell University. Shortly after my colleague Hannah Lopez and I arrived at the facility around 8 am Central Standard Time (CST) on April 5th, we were greeted by a man who identified himself as the Assistant Warden employed by GEO Group. To the best of my knowledge and recollection, this man’s name is Jimmy Bingham (Assistant Warden Bingham). Assistant Warden Bingham then asked us to speak with him in the Warden’s office. He explained that he was in charge at the Jena facility in the absence of the Warden who was on out on personal leave (to wit, GEO Group Facility Administrator Shad Rice) and communicated that we should come to him with any questions or concerns during our two-day legal visits.
4. That day, and the following day, our group conducted know your rights presentations and met with individuals to provide further legal information and assistance.
5. On the second day of our visit, GEO Group staff were much more vigilant of our movements and much less cooperative with our group’s efforts to complete our work. For example, on the second day we were required to have GEO Group officer escorts every time we need to use the restroom, which was not required on the first day. There were several other issues that arose which will be detailed in a forthcoming affidavit by my colleague who worked as the lead coordinator for the legal rights presentations.
6. On the afternoon of April 6, 2023, I was speaking with a detained individualin one of the rooms approved for our use by GEO Group staff when, sometime approaching 3 pm CST, my colleague Rose Murray informed me that Mr. Daniel Alfredo Cortes De La Valle (Mr. Cortes), requested that he be able to meet with us.[2]
7. Shortly thereafter, I emailed the relevant ICE and GEO Group staff to request that we be allowed to meet individually with Mr. Cortes to get an update on his case, copying his legal counsel at RFK in the correspondence. The facility acquiesced to our request and two individuals from our group were escorted by GEO Group officers to a private, confidential room to speak with Mr. Cortes. The two individuals were Cornell University professor, Dr. Monica Cornejo and [Name of collaborator].
8. Sometime later (approximately no less than ten minutes, but no more than forty), Dr. Cornejo returned to the room where I was continuing to provide legal information to other detained non-citizens. As soon as I saw her face, I knew something was wrong because it had an expression of fear and alarm. I excused myself from the conversation I was having and spoke to her privately in a corner of the visitation room. Dr. Cornejo informed me that she and [Name of collaborator] were interviewing Mr. Cortes when suddenly, he grew very pale, and his face went slack.[3]
9. Dr. Cornejo further explained that she and [Name of collaborator] then witnessed Mr. Cortes having a sudden seizure — that he fell to the floor convulsing and was verbally unresponsive. Dr. Cornejo shared that she stayed in the room with Mr. Cortes while [Name of collaborator] stepped just outside to call for help. Dr. Cornejo informed me that a male nurse (a white, blond man in blue uniform whom she initially thought was an emergency medical technician or EMT) and a female GEO Group officer (upon information and belief, one Major Jessica Adams) arrived and were casually smiling and snickering about the medical emergency Mr. Cortes was experiencing. She shared that staff eventually placed Mr. Cortes on what Dr. Cornejo described as a plastic gurney and took him to another area on the property.
10. Dr. Cornejo informed me that she requested to accompany Mr. Cortes to ensure he felt safe, but that she was told she was not allowed because that would violate HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
11. At that moment, I decided the best course of action would be to request help from Assistant Warden Bingham in obtaining a health status update for Mr. Cortes. I asked my colleague Hannah Lopez to take over the monitoring of legal presentations and I stepped outside of the room with Dr. Cornejo. I then asked the female GEO Group officer who had been assigned to guard our room on the second day (again, something that did not occur on the first day) if I could please be taken to speak to the Assistant Warden. She looked alarmed and repeated the question back to me, as if confused by my request. I explained that we needed to speak with the Assistant Warden because our team had just witnessed a concerning medical emergency to which she replied with a casual laugh, “Oh who, Daniel?” — presumably referring to Mr. Cortes.
12. I then observed a GEO Group staff member who had been introduced to me the previous day as “the Captain” standing just down the hall from us. I walked over to him with Dr. Cornejo and asked him to please take us to speak with Assistant Warden Bingham. The Captain then reluctantly escorted us from the back of the facility to the front entrance lobby, near to where the GEO Group offices are located, close by to the security table and metal detector. Another GEO Group officer (an unidentified bald white middle-aged man in GEO Group uniform) then asked us to take a seat in the lobby while we waited to speak to the Assistant Warden.
13. As we sat for a few minutes, I explained to Dr. Cornejo that I would ask his counsel at RFK to send ICE and GEO Group staff a signed HIPAA release for Mr. Cortes by email so that we could ask for an immediate health status update. I called Ms. Sarah Decker, RFK attorney and counsel for Mr. Cortes, to relay this information and request. As we waited to speak with the Assistant Warden, we saw the male nurse in blue uniform who had failed to properly treat Mr. Cortes during his seizure, walk into the lobby towards the facility entrance. I attempted to speak to the nurse, asking him to please wait before leaving the facility until we had an opportunity to speak with the Assistant Warden.
14. The male nurse refused to speak with us and flipped the name badge clipped to his uniform up with his hand so that the backside of the badge was facing forward, obscuring his identifying information. While I was trying to stress the urgency that he please wait, given that he was one of the medical staff with the most up to date information about Mr. Cortes on site, the GEO Group Captain told the nurse that he could leave the facility because he was off duty. The male nurse stated that he would not speak to us because of HIPAA, to which I responded that we had a HIPAA release for Mr. Cortes if he would wait until the matter could be clarified with the Assistant Warden.
15. Assistant Warden Bingham then entered the lobby from the doorway of the GEO Group offices and instructed me and Dr. Cornejo to speak with him inside the Warden’s office (to wit, the office of Facility Administrator Shad Rice). The male nurse entered the broader office space while Dr. Cornejo and I entered the private office of Warden Rice together with Assistant Warden Bingham, the Captain, and the aforementioned unidentified white male GEO Group officer. The Warden’s office door remained open and all of us present in the room remained standing.
16. As I tried to explain to Assistant Warden Bingham what Dr. Cornejo witnessed and what I was now requesting — namely a health status update for Mr. Cortes — he interrupted me in a raised voice commanding that I lower my voice. He also interrupted me to make factual corrections to my statements. For example, as I was explaining that Dr. Cornejo witnessed the EMT casually snickering at Mr. Cortes’s medical emergency, he interrupted me to name that the man was in fact a nurse, not an EMT. When I stressed that we needed a medical health update given the urgency of the situation, he interrupted me to state that HIPAA laws prevented this request. When I responded that we had a HIPAA release ready to send, he further interrupted me with a raised voice to express that GEO Group was in no position to provide such an update, that he and GEO Group had nothing to do with Mr. Cortes’s medical care because that fell under the purview of ICE Health Services Corps.
17. I attempted to explain to Assistant Warden Bingham that we were seeking his assistance to immediately share our HIPAA release with ICE Health Services and to speak with the male nurse and any other medical staff who could provide a health status update for Mr. Cortes. The Assistant Warden grew visibly angry, raised his voice again and instructed the GEO Group officers to remove me from the Warden’s office. The GEO Group officers did not move, and I sat down in a chair, attempting to deescalate the situation. I then began stating in calm tone and lowered volume that I did not want to argue, but to have a conversation with him. I attempted to explain that whether or not GEO Group was primarily responsible for medical care at the facility, that he as the head of the facility in the absence of the Warden, should be concerned about this serious incident and have an interest in speaking with me to resolve it. However, in the middle of this explanation, the Assistant Warden abruptly left the office, leaving me and Dr. Cornejo seated in the office with the two GEO Group officers, Captain and the unidentified white male, who remained standing. I then turned my explanation to the two remaining officers, in my continued attempt to deescalate the situation.
18. As I was in the process of explaining to the two remaining officers, in walked a man who introduced himself as the head of ICE Health Services Corps for the Jena facility. I then attempted to make my request to him that we please be allowed to send him our HIPAA release so that members of his staff, including the male nurse in question, could provide a health status update for Mr. Cortes. Instead, while standing over me as I remained seated with Dr. Cornejo, he repeatedly interrupted me in a raised volume to ask whether “email worked for me” and to inform me that he would send Mr. Cortes’s entire medical record to me on Monday of the following week. While I was attempting to respond that my request was for something more time-sensitive and less onerous, suddenly Assistant Warden Bingham returned with several uniformed ICE officers (approximately four or five), all of whom were white, large men standing just outside the open office door.
19. One of the uniformed ICE officers (to wit, one Assistant Field Office Director Matthew W. Reaves) who appeared to have a taser or stun gun attached to the side of his belt holster, entered the office, and stood over me with one hand extended towards my face and the other resting on his belt. I attempted to explain the situation, but he quickly interrupted me by asking in a raised volume and angry tone whether I had been asked to leave. I tried to remain calm and respond, but was once again interrupted and told that the local police had been called because of my refusal to leave the Assistant Warden’s office. In shock, I slowly walked out of the office while expressing my feelings of frustration and dismay. I then sat in the lobby chairs with Dr. Cornejo to wait for the arrival of the local police.
20. A few minutes later, Dr. Cornejo and I saw two Jena parish police cars pull up to the front of the facility through the glass doors of the entrance. I then asked Dr. Cornejo to please call my colleague Hannah Lopez to inform her that the police had arrived. While Dr. Cornejo and I remained seated in the lobby, Assistant Warden Bingham, ICE officer Matthew Reaves and one other man in ICE uniform left the facility to speak to the two police officers (to wit, Officer Perry Nelson, Badge # JA13 and Officer Cody DuBois, Badge #JA5). For a few minutes, I observed the five white men greet one another, shaking hands and speaking in a friendly manner.
21. Moments later, Jena police officers Mr. Nelson and Mr. DuBois entered the facility, walked up to me and Dr. Cornejo, and while standing over us stated that we were on private property owned and operated by GEO Group and because we were asked to leave that private property, we were now trespassing by remaining. Dr. Cornejo and I attempted to explain our understanding of the events that precipitated their arrival, when the elder officer of the two interrupted and told us that we would be “allowed to ask questions” after he was finished speaking. At no point did either officer ask me or Dr. Cornejo what had transpired prior to their arrival. Based on my personal recollection, they were both uniformed and armed with a firearm in their respective holsters. The two officers stood over me and Dr. Cornejo while we remained seated. The younger officer had both hands resting on his belt near his firearm holster for the majority of the conversation.
22. The elder police officer then told me that I had three choices: I could leave peacefully, he could write me a ticket, or he could arrest me. I then calmly and carefully attempted to explain my recollection of the events and stated that I had never been asked to leave the property, only to leave the Warden’s office, which I had already done. I also stated that we had express pre-approval to be at the facility. Dr. Cornejo and I also tried to express to the officers that they owed a duty to ensure Mr. Cortes’s safety. The elder police officer then asked Assistant Warden Bingham if he would like us to leave the property to which he replied yes. At this point we were escorted off the property by the two officers and I asked that the information I provided about the incident please be included in their police report. The elder police officer assured me the information would be included and that I could return the following day to pick up the report.
23. As soon as I walked away from the officers, Mr. Cortes’s counsel with RFK who remained listening by phone asked me if I was alright. Upon hearing the question, I immediately began crying because I realized I felt very unsafe. I was emotional because I genuinely felt that I narrowly evaded a situation that was unnecessarily escalated by GEO Group staff and that could have placed me and my colleagues in real danger. Additionally, I felt impotent and distraught that I was unable to obtain the health update for Mr. Cortes that I was requesting and legally entitled to obtain.
24. That evening my colleagues, the Cornell professors, the Cornell law students, and I gathered to debrief about the day’s events. During this debrief, [Name of collaborator] was visibly shaken by what she witnessed and had difficulty describing the events without breaking down into tears. She became visibly distraught when describing what she perceived as sinister smile on the female GEO Group facility staff member’s face (to wit, Major Jessica Adams) while Mr. Cortes was experiencing a severe seizure on the floor in front of them.
25. The following day, April 7, 2023, my colleague Tania Wolf and I returned to Jena, Louisiana and arrived at the local parish police precinct at approximately 10:15 am CST. However, no one was physically present and when we called the phone number indicated on their front door, we were informed that the Jena parish police office was closed for “Good Friday” and that we could request a copy of the report the following week. After several requests over the course of the following two weeks, we were provided the attached police report on April 19, 2023.
Sworn to before me this 31st day of May 2023.
Mich P. González, Esq.
[1] Following a lawsuit brought by the Juvenile Justice Project for Louisiana, the Jena prison, as well as others owned and operated by Wackenhut (now GEO Group), was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and found guilty of widespread abuses, including numerous sexual assaults, prolonged solitary confinement in life-threatening conditions, and excessive use of force. See https://apnews.com/article/a44eec78726be3abc5b97fbb64a576ce; see also https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/08/us/settling-suit-louisiana-abandons-private-youth-prisons.html.
[2] As background, Mr. Cortes is a client of Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights (RFK). RFK and Freedom for Immigrants filed an administrative Civil Rights and Civil Liberties complaint regarding allegations of medical neglect, abuse, sexual assault, and other acts that may constitute torture. For further information about the complaint arising from the treatment Mr. Cortes has experienced while in ICE custody at the GEO Group-run Jena facility, see https://www.wwno.org/immigration/2023-04-10/new-complaint-alleges-sex-assault-medical-neglect-abuse-of-detainee-at-louisiana-ice-facility. SPLC and other organizations added their signatures to the CRCL complaint filed by RFK and Freedom for Immigrants.
[3] I was not present during this event, but relay facts as they were explained to me for the purpose of establishing a timeline of events. However, Dr. Cornejo was physical present and details the incident in detail in her affidavit, enclosed.
