Those held at Otay Mesa Detention Center can no longer call a group of activists who help them with money for food and phone calls and listen to their concerns about conditions inside.
CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs the facility, recently blocked calls to phone numbers belonging to Otay Mesa Detention Resistance, an organization that was instrumental in helping detainees share their experiences with journalists and others as the nation’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak among immigration detainees spread at the facility.
CoreCivic confirmed via email that it told the company that operates the phone lines to block the numbers.
“We took this action at the direction of our government partner,” said Amanda Gilchrist, spokeswoman for CoreCivic, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She directed further inquiry to ICE.
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