Detainees at the Torrance County ICE Detention Facility are raising concerns about tap and shower water with one man saying it caused sores on his arms.
TORRANCE COUNTY, N.M. – Detainees at the Torrance County Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Facility are raising concerns about tap and shower water with one man saying it caused sores on his arms.
Contigo Immigrant Justice Attorney, Tiffany Wang, said on Thursday five detainees have raised concerns about the water, including a man who is blaming the water for an outbreak on his arms.
“He’s literally shown me, sores on his arms, that he says is because of the water that he’s showering with,” Wang said.
Wang said the facility provides water jugs for detainees to drink from, but when staff are unavailable to refill them, detainees are encouraged to drink tap water.
“The men say, ‘Absolutely not I can’t drink that,’ because that water is completely, you know, it smells bad it looks wrong,” Wang said.
Water questions
KOB 4 found the facility gets its water from the town of Estancia.
Wang said she believes the problem is inside the facility because people who live in Estancia are not reporting the same issues.
“You can say the water is the same but if we’re seeing these different problems there’s, I don’t know, something in the plumbing, something in the water over there,” Wang said.
She had noted in her interview on Thursday that she believed the facility needs to have its plumbing thoroughly inspected.
We reached out to CoreCivic, the company that runs the detention facility. Spokesperson Ryan Guston said the company is not aware of any problems with the water or the facility’s plumbing.
“CoreCivic’s top priority is the safety, security and well-being of those in our custody and care and our staff. The Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) gets the same clean drinking water the local utility supplies to the surrounding community. Our staff at the facility drink the same water source as the detainees,” Ryan Guston said in a statement.
“The local water authority conducts monthly independent tests on TCDF’s water supply to verify its safety and cleanliness for drinking,” Guston said in a statement. “We encourage you to contact them for the most recent reports, which confirm no issues with the drinking water at the facility.”
Wang also said that when her staff visits the facility, they do not drink the water.
