Last week, representatives for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) toured facilities at the currently shuttered Dublin Federal Correctional Institute (FCI).
Following sweeping revelations of sexual abuse in the women’s prison, FCI Dublin was permanently closed last November. Now, I.C.E. officials are ostensibly looking to use the space as an immigrant detention center.
“My opinion would be: The indication is absolutely there that this is potentially going to be converted to an I.C.E. facility,” John Kostelnik told KQED. Kostelnik is the Western region vice president for the American Federal of Government Employees Council of Prison Locals C-33.
Such has yet to be confirmed. But a leaked memo signed on Feb. 6 by the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) formalized the use of five federal prisons as I.C.E. detention centers. While FCI Dublin wasn’t listed, the further release of memos is expected — according to KTVU reporting.
If the former prison is authorized for I.C.E.’s use, it will be the closest detention center to campus. In February, LPC President Dyrell Foster sent a flier to staff and students detailing protocols for responding to “on campus Immigration Enforcement activities.”
I.C.E. agents, the flier notes, should be directed to the president’s office.
In their recent report on the I.C.E. presence in Dublin, FOX 2-KTVU cited court documents from 2022 in which FCI Dublin was revealed to be contaminated by asbestos, black mold and sewage leaks.
“Less than a year ago, FCI Dublin was deemed too dangerous and uninhabitable for people in Bureau of Prisons custody,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, told KQED.
“And nothing has changed since its closure.”
Owing to its unsafe conditions and history of sexual abuse, FCI Dublin was temporarily closed last April. The prison — which housed 605 women at the time of its closure — was empty by May.
Regarding the aforementioned sexual abuse, the BOP agreed to pay 103 women $115.8 million — making it the largest settlement provided to incarcerated people by the Department of Justice, per KTVU. The women accused FCI Dublin officials of sexually assaulting them.
Seven FCI officers have been sentenced on charges of sexual abuse. An eighth will go to trial in March. Among the offenders is the prison warden.
“FCI Dublin was a place of extreme violence and mistreatment where noncitizens were specifically preyed upon by staff,” Susan Beaty, an attorney for the affected women, told KTVU.
“Unfortunately, we have every reason to believe that I.C.E. would carry on that tradition of abuse, retaliation and medical neglect.”
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TOP PHOTO: I.C.E. agents could be setting up shop nearby campus in Dublin. (Photo courtesy of Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
Olivia Fitts is the News Editor and Features Editor for The Express. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @OLIVIAFITTS2.
