Ukrainian Women are Being Tortured in US Detention Centers

Imagine this; a woman fleeing the horrors in Ukraine has been detained by hostile agents. She is shoved into cell with 30 other captive Ukrainians. Suddenly, the cell-temperature is lowered; until the freezing cold becomes absolutely unbearable: Days under such conditions turn to weeks, as the women, sick and desperate, beg their captors for a sweater or a blanket. The guards ignore their pleas; they are merely following orders. Standard protocol is to freeze the prisoners into submission; who are they to interfere? Occasionally, a detainee is freed and share their story, but torturers coolly respond through government channels. According to them, the prisoners are treated “humanely”, and that the prison temperature is always maintained at around “70 degrees”.

This scenario sounds familiar, but it’s not happening in Occupied Eastern Europe. It is happening n the USA, every-day. While we do nothing.

The ICE torture technique has existed for years. Latino refugees have referred to freezing detention cells as Ice Boxes or “Hieleras” since the days of the Obama administration. The purpose of the ICE-torture is clear; to punish non-Americans for daring to cross the border. As Mother Jones suggests, the cold is part punishment, part deterrent. One 18-year-old refugee who had complained about the cold recalls the guard sneering that “maybe we would think about it two times before trying to cross again.” An emigration rights lawyer I have spoken to insists that “the purpose is to make the conditions so horrific that they (the asylum seekers) give up their court case and accept deportation.”

The ICE torture is not new invention; it is a variant of the “cold cell” torture technique, first sanctioned by the Bush Administration as one of six official “Enhanced Integration” methods. The “cold cell” method consisted of keeping detainees shuddering in a 50 degree cell (usually while soaking wet). This method has previously led to deadly results. In November 2002, a suspected Afghan militant, Gul Rahman, died of hypothermia inside a CIA black site north of Kabul known as the Salt Pit. Nonetheless, US agents continue to employ this method to this day, even though the method, much like Covid, has mutated to be “less deadly”. We can observe its application to toddler refugees. In one civil-rights lawsuit, the court talked of 2- and 3-year-olds with wet diapers in “freezing cold.” The case cites a declaration that claims that when children would cry because of the frigid temperatures, officers “would turn the temperature down even further” after yelling at the children to shut up.” This cruel technique can obviously lead to serious bodily harm. For example, a female refugee claims to have been so cold that her lips chapped and split, and her sister’s extremities began to turn blue. The sister was beginning to exhibit symptoms of hypothermia, but the ICE agents did not care.

In fact, the CPB (US Custom Protection) refuses to acknowledge that its detention facilities are consistently cold. Rather, the agency says that cells are kept at about 70 degrees. As one CPB head puts it, “The facilities only feel cold because migrants are coming from hot conditions or climates and are not accustomed to air conditioning…So 72 degrees can feel cold to someone in that situation.”

Now, I was born Ukraine and I can tell you; we Ukrainians know the difference between freezing temperatures and 72 degrees. Recently, complaints bout cold cell torture have arisen from Ukrainian refugees. These refugees are mostly women and children, For instance; Kateryina, a young Ukrainian dancer, describes her weeks-long in a Louisiana detention center thusly: “It was so cold there that after the second day, people started getting sick… Everybody was asking them to at least turn off the air conditioner, and their response was, ‘We cannot turn it off, because we keep it cold to kill the bacteria in the air.’ ” Meanwhile Maryna, a mother from Southern Ukraine seeking asylum describes “sobbing in a freezing immigration detention center” with her daughters. As Taylor Levy, an immigration lawyer, puts it, “What we’re seeing is the United States not welcoming these people with dignity and respect. They’re treating them the same way that the system always treats people seeking protection, which means horrific conditions, freezing cold cells”.

This week, I was in contact with female asylum seekers being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center. The 30+ women are locked in a freezing cell. Many of the women have gotten sick from the constant cold air. The women begged the guards for some warm clothing, which the guards decline to provide. One day, after chow-time, the women collectively refused to enter the freezing cell. Subsequently, the guards became verbally abusive, coercing the women to enter. Currently, the guards are threatening to cutoff the AC entirely if the women dare to complain, leaving them to suffocate in the sweltering conditions reminiscent of the Black Hole of Calcutta.

Many stories have been published about about human-rights violations arising from the Russo-Ukrainian war. Such horrible suffering seems very remote and far away. However, it turns out you can encounter abused Ukrainians without leaving the confines of the US. Just drive out to 3843 Stagg Ave, Basil Louisiana. Afterwards, take a good look at the granite walls surrounded by barbed wire. Behind these walls, Ukrainian women endure unbearable cold, even as you sweat in the Louisiana heat. These women are tormented by Americans, whose boss is President Joe Biden. If you wait until after 5pm, I suggest you get a beer the Basile Roadhouse, down the road. There, over drinks, you can ask a detention center employee what it’s like to make a Ukrainian woman suffer she slowly loses hope day-in day-out. The ICE agent will take a swig of beer and let you know that they are simply “following instructions”. Besides, they only get paid minimum wage. Such decisions are way above their pay-grade. The ICE agent then orders another round and goes home; sleeping snuggly in their bed as the sick women shudder in their cell. How soundly will you sleep tonight, my friend?