Alaska legislators probe state’s conduct with federal immigration detainees

Members of the House Judiciary Committee held an unusual summer hearing on Friday to investigate the conduct of the Alaska Department of Corrections and the state’s decision to take temporary custody of more than 40 immigrant detainees formerly housed in Washington state.

Protests have taken place almost daily outside the Anchorage Correctional Center, which is holding the detainees. 

During a two-hour committee meeting, legislators asked tough questions of Jen Winkelman, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections.

“It’s a very unique situation,” Winkelman said.

She said the federal detention center in Tacoma, Washington, is “bursting at the seams” and that a local Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent asked if the Anchorage Correctional Center was available.

“We looked at our … current population and said yes in an effort to be a good partner,” she said.

Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump and the start of his second term in office, the number of people being detained by ICE has surged.

The number of people detained for non-criminal reasons has grown even faster than the rate of detentions overall: Before Trump took office, about 1 in 16 ICE detainees had no criminal charges or convictions. Now, the ratio is 1 in 4. 

ICE has used aggressive and at-times violent tactics to make arrests, which has sparked protests against the agency.

The surge has also caused ICE to look across the country for available prison space, and the agency has turned to for-profit prisons and other unusual places.

Alaska does not have a federal prison, and the state has no for-profit prisons, but it does have long-standing contracts with federal agencies.

Traditionally, those contracts have resulted in the state temporarily housing federal inmates until they can be moved to federal facilities outside the state. 

But in June, the state’s contract with ICE worked almost in reverse, as 41 people were brought from the federal detention facility in Tacoma to the Anchorage Correctional Complex.

The problem, said Rep. Donna Mears, D-Anchorage, is that the state is now housing noncriminals in a facility designed to house criminals.

“What we have here in Alaska is we’ve got a state corrections facility. It’s very different circumstances, and it sounds like that’s not meeting the needs of the folks that are here in our care,” Mears said. 

“In addition to that, Alaska’s far away, and when you’re moving folks, especially when you’re moving folks at the last minute, with no notice, they’re losing access to their representation, their social services, their family, and other resources that they have. This is very concerning, and I think that we really need to rethink how we’re treating folks and the contracts and responsibilities of DOC,” she said.

In response to questions from legislators, Winkelman said that the state’s contract with the federal government means that Alaska’s costs are being reimbursed by the federal government.

“I’m just wondering if, all we’re doing is getting refunded for our costs, why are we doing this at all?” asked Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage.

Winkelman responded that it’s because Alaska doesn’t have a federal detention center but has a large federal presence — the Coast Guard, Army, Air Force and more.

“Until it is changed in statute, we will continue to be a good partner federally,” Winkelman said. “One of those partners is ICE, and I will say that typically, they do not stay.”

In response to a followup question from Josephson, Winkelman said that the state could have turned down the ICE request. 

She said that when the first ICE detainees arrived in Alaska, the department was told that they would be there for no more than 30 days. Since then, six of the original 41 detainees have left the state.

Attorneys for some of the detainees testified that their clients have told them about inadequate conditions and prison guards’ use of pepper spray to put the detainees back into their cells during a lockdown.

“There has been one use of force, and that was not at an individual,” Winkleman said. “We had an incident in the unit where they were … doing, essentially, a verbal demonstration, aggressively. They were not wanting to lock down.”

Cindy Woods, senior immigration law and policy fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, said the detainees are being held in “punitive conditions.”

“These civil detainees at ACC are brothers, husbands, partners and fathers, who are simply waiting for an administrative body to decide their ability to stay in the United States,” she said.

In some cases, detainees are being kept three to a cell. That’s by detainees’ request, Winkelman said. Some would prefer to stay with people who speak their language and share their culture, she said.

Democratic and independent members of the House Judiciary Committee participated in Friday’s hearing, but none of the committee’s Republican members did so.

At least one Republican lawmaker, Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, watched the hearing from the gallery. Coulombe is not a member of the judiciary committee.

House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage and a member of the committee, issued a written statement calling Friday’s meeting a “show hearing” and saying that the House’s minority caucus “stands with the President.” 

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer and a member of the committee, also commented in the statement.

“This caucus stands with ICE, with Alaska’s Department of Corrections, and with every Alaskan who believes the rule of law still matters,” Vance said.

Correction: The initial version of this article incorrectly attributed a quotation from Rep. Donna Mears, D-Anchorage, to Cindy Woods, senior immigration law and policy fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska. The article has been updated.