LOS ANGELES _ J. Lee stirred awake in early June at an immigration detention facility to find one of his cellmates sliding a hand down his pants.
Lee, 38, had overstayed a tourist visa from South Korea and was now locked in a cell 22 hours each day with two strangers _ one of whom had been convicted of soliciting the murder of a family of 10 in Belize. The third cellmate had told Lee that the Belizean man was violating Lee as he slept.
This time Lee felt it.
He tried to report the incident, but 911 is disabled on phones accessible to detainees at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center where he was held, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said staff told him they would report the incident but gave him no updates. Desperate for help, he asked a lawyer who was investigating coronavirus issues at the facility to report his allegations to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, which sent a deputy to interview the three detainees.
Afterward, Lee said, he began having panic attacks. He wrote to an ICE agent, "How can I do to get out of this nightmare?"
Details of the incident are described in a police report. Lee confirmed those and details of the aftermath in interviews with the Los Angeles Times, health records and federal court documents. The Times generally does not fully name victims of sexual abuse, except when they volunteer to be publicly identified.
Lee's witness was deported June 22. A week later, the district attorney's office decided not to prosecute, citing lack of evidence.
A Times investigation found that since 2017, at least 265 calls made to police through 911 and nonemergency lines have reported violence and abuse inside California's four privately run federal detention centers overseen by ICE. Half the calls alleged sex crimes, including rape, sexual assault and abuse against detainees. The rest were to report assault, battery and other threats of violence against detainees and staff.
In only three cases in which detainees said they were victimized did records show a suspect was charged, The Times found, and in two of those, the suspects were deported before they could be arrested. One case involving two victims _ a staff member and a detainee _ is pending.
Prosecutors were more likely to pursue cases in which the victims worked at the facility. Among 41 calls alleging attacks on staff members, charges were filed in 12 cases.
Unlike in prisons and jails, people in ICE detention are not serving time for crimes _ they are being held while immigration judges decide whether they should be deported. Many are asylum seekers, and most have no criminal history. The federal government is responsible for their safety.
For years, advocates and detainees have complained about unchecked violence within these facilities.
The Times examined hundreds of pages of public records, including federal investigative reports, 911 calls and court documents, and interviewed federal and local officials as well as detention center representatives and detainees.
What emerged is a picture of a system in which violence can be perpetuated against detainees with impunity, both by other detainees and facility staff. Detainees were banned from calling 911, according to ICE, and forced to rely on others to report allegations on their behalf.
Some private detention centers brokered agreements with law enforcement agencies that dictated which crimes officers would respond to. When police did intervene, some were discouraged from investigating, prevented by staff from speaking to detainees who had alleged abuse and instructed not to pursue cases they said had merit, according to police reports.
ICE declined an interview request about The Times' findings but provided written responses to select questions.
"ICE is committed to a culture that promotes safety and has zero-tolerance for abuse of any kind," spokeswoman Paige Hughes said in a statement. "ICE is committed to transparency, collaboration, and resolving all concerns, complaints, and allegations with individuals in ICE custody."
Representatives of the companies that operate ICE facilities in California said they always contact law enforcement to investigate potential criminal allegations and also conduct their own administrative investigations.
In Lee's case, his alleged abuser was moved to a different cell. The stress caused Lee to lose 35 pounds. He couldn't sleep. He wrote to a psychiatrist, pleading, "I don't wanna die in here."
