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BOSTON — Attorneys for the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts sparred in court Tuesday over whether the sheriff must release healthcare records related to immigrant detainees in his custody.
The hearing, in Suffolk County Superior Court, stemmed from the Massachusetts ACLU’s records request for documents about the contract Plymouth Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald, Jr., renewed with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sept. 25, 2024.
The Plymouth County Correctional Facility is the only longer-term immigrant detention facility in Massachusetts. The ACLU sued the Sheriff’s Office in February after several efforts to obtain records related to medical care afforded immigrant detainees there.
The sheriff’s denial relied on arguments about state privacy laws and questions around federal preemption of state law.
“We have, I think, a pretty interesting issue here,” said Judge James Boudreau, who presided over the proceedings, at the hearing’s start. “The first question is whether or not the supremacy clause [of the U.S. Constitution] prohibits the production of the documents.”
Dan McFadden, managing attorney at the Massachusetts ACLU, argued that it does not.
“Plymouth has no authority to contract its way out of public records law,” McFadden told the judge in his arguments. “These are records we have good reason to believe they have because the contract with ICE says they produce them.”
The sheriff’s main argument rests on a federal regulation prohibiting the release of names of federal detainees in state or local custody and the legal theory of preemption — when federal laws supersede those at the state and local levels of governance.
“There’s no bad faith here on the part of the sheriff’s department,” said Jessica Kenny, general counsel for the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office. “Quite frankly, providing [the records] could also be a violation of the law.”
Tuesday’s hearing focused on a motion to dismiss filed by the Sheriff’s Office.
Denial fight
The ACLU argued in court Tuesday that the laws the sheriff cited were overly broad, and that the sheriff was attempting to circumvent state law.
“It would be pretty extraordinary if Congress tried to interfere in state agencies’ abilities to generate its own record,” McFadden said.
Kenny argued that though the sheriff could not release the requested records, the plaintiffs could attempt to procure the documents through a federal Freedom of Information Act request to ICE.
“These documents were created pursuant to the [ICE-sheriff agreement], so ICE does have the records,” she said. But she added that she had consulted ICE and the agency said it could not release any of the records in question. Even so, she chose to disclose two pages from an audit.
“That was actually opposed to ICE’s indication to me,” she said, “because when I see this record, I don’t see any identifying information.”
When Boudreau pressed Kenny on whether the redaction of detainee’s’ names, alien registration numbers, and any other identifying information could resolve the issue, she quickly assented.
“If those are redacted, there’s no way of connecting that to a detainee?” Boudreau asked.
“Presumably no,” Kenny responded.
Boudreau said he would take the matter under advisement before adjourning.
“We’re very pleased that the judge is giving our case careful consideration,” McFadden said after adjournment. “We are hopeful that the records will ultimately be ordered produced.”
Kenny declined to comment.
History of issues
Plymouth County Correctional Facility began to house immigrant detainees through a contract with the now defunct-Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1998. It is currently the only such facility to house immigrant detainees long term in Massachusetts.
According to its contract with ICE, Plymouth sets aside 250 beds at the facility for immigrant detainees. The agency pays the sheriff’s office $215 per day per occupied bed.
The contract also obligates the Sheriff’s Office to create the health records. The ACLU filed its initial records request seeking those records on Dec. 11.
“The availability of medical care in immigration detention facilities is vitally important, as immigration detainees have no other way to seek medical help while detained,” wrote MacKenzie Saunders, an ACLU attorney, in the original complaint. “And for some, not receiving medical care can be a matter of life or death.”
A 2024 report published by the Boston University School of Law and Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts found through interviews with detainees that Plymouth authorities did not provide detainees with necessary care and services. It recommended the sheriff ensure inmates had timely access to necessary medical care, offer free access to phone and video calls with loved ones, and to discontinue the use of solitary confinement. Another 2024 report by the ICE Office of Detention Oversight found the prison had “no deficiencies” in treatment.
As of June 9, 52 people had died in ICE custody nationwide since President Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The ACLU cited the fatalities, and other reports of ill-treatment, in its complaint.
Several of those detainees died of what may appear to be minor problems. On March 2, 56-year old Emmanuel Damas, a Haitian man living in Boston, died at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, while in custody from an untreated tooth infection.
On Tuesday, the public learned that Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, an Afghan national who fought alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan and was detained in Texas, died from an allergic reaction to an unidentified substance on March 14.
Kevin G. Andrade can be contacted at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org
