Austin Council Members Seek Access To Detained Immigrant

AUSTIN, TX — Three Austin City Council members have sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials requesting they be allowed to visit an immigrant woman being held in detention in Williamson County.

Laura Monterrosa has accused a guard of sexual assault and has reportedly grown suicidal after what she and advocates calling attention to her plight describe as a pattern of retaliation. The woman has been held at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center for nine months. After her outcry, she was placed in solitary confinement while her health deteriorates, officials at Grassroots Leadership said.

The El Salvador immigrant who had sought asylum in the U.S. was placed in solitary confinement for 60 hours from 11 p.m. on Feb. 8 to 11 a.m. on Feb. 11 while told she would be freed from solitary if she recanted her story of sexual assault, according to advocates speaking for her. ICE officials have denied the accusation.

The council members from Austin are requesting access to the detainee after a Feb. 20 attempt by Council Member Greg Casar to visit with the woman was rebuffed by CoreCivic officials who run the site. Reportedly, the detention center's operators expressed concerns Casar would later go to the media to describe what he might have seen at the facility, according to Grassroots Leadership advocates.

The Williamson County detention center in Taylor, Texas, at 1001 Welch St. is far from the jurisdiction of Austin City Council members. But Williamson County officials have been silent on the issue of the woman's plight. Many speculate a lucrative arrangment the county has with CoreCivic prevents them from taking any action on the matter or demand for an invesgigation.

Williamson County officials have received tens of millions of dollars from the detention center's operators merely for allowing them to operate the site in Williamson County. Williamson County coffers are fortified by CoreCivic every month, the detention center operators providing a windfall of $8,000 for the county commissioners' role as "liaison."

Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody — a prolific tweeter and issuer of press releases highlighting his agency's crime fighting — has been uncharacteristacally silent on the plight of the immigrant woman at the detention center in his jurisdiction. Patch sent an email to his office on Nov. 9, 2017, asking if the case would be investigated, but never received a reply. Chody's office has continued to decline to comment on the matter to other media outlets, but of late adding that the FBI has since been prompted to investigate instead.

Hearing of her hardship, the three council members now requesting to visit with Monterrosa also are demanding she be released — joining a cause Austin-based Grassroots Leadership has long taken on.

“To bar officials from entering a detention center because they represent the public, or because they may speak to the media about what they see, raises dire questions about freedom of speech and the transparency of these facilities,” the letter reads in part. “We are deeply concerned that continued detention will be harmful for Ms. Monterrosa’s health and call on you to release her immediately from detention.”

Read the full letter here.

Related stories:

Sexual Abuse Claims Emerge From Hutto Immigrant Detention Site

Austin Advocates Call For Release Of Detained Migrant Woman

Chody Blasted For Inaction On Detention Site Sexual Abuse Claims

Immigrant Woman Held In Williamson County Attempts Suicide

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