The Alaska Department of Corrections, which handles the state’s jails and prisons, has taken in 40 people who were detained outside of the state by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The move comes amid a national crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration.
In a statement, Alaska Deputy DOC Commissioner April Wilkerson said all 40 of the detainees are men, and they were taken in under an “existing contract for federal detainees.” Wilkerson said the state is being reimbursed $223.70 per man per day, and DOC anticipates the men will be held in the state for about a month. She said the state’s prison population is at about 83 percent bed capacity, as of Monday.
Wilkerson declined to answer additional questions, including what facilities the men are being held at, and where they were originally detained.
Anchorage-based immigration attorney Nicolas Olano called the move “unusual” and said he hasn’t seen transfers like this in his decade as a lawyer in Alaska.
“This is like sending people, I think, almost like trying to send them to El Salvador, to somewhere far remote,” Olano said. “And it's just the same idea of punishing the immigrant and punishing their families and creating fear and distress upon everybody.”
Olano said he’s been made aware that at least some of the detainees are being held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. He said conditions are “very poor” at the Alaska facilities, and detainees aren’t able to leave their cell for very long or go outside.
“The food is terrible, and the medical attention is subpar,” Olano said, comparing conditions in Alaska to the next closest ICE facility in Washington. “This is different, and I'm not saying that it's a great camp, but my understanding of what the clients have told me, the treatment, the food, the space in the facilities, are much better in Tacoma.”
Olano said Alaska also has a shortage of interpreters. He said he’s been contacted by the attorney of one of the detainees who was moved to Alaska, but as of Monday afternoon he was not representing any of the 40 men.
“I'm going to find out what we can do for him, try to get in contact with these other people and just pass out the information that we are going to try to help and see what we can do,” Olano said.
A regional spokesman for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As of the end of May, 11 people in Alaska have been detained by ICE officials.
