Thread: Hundreds Riot at L.A. Detention Facility

LANCASTER, Calif. - Hundreds of illegal immigrants awaiting deportation rioted at a county-run detention center and had to be subdued with tear gas, authorities said Wednesday.

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The riot Tuesday started as a fight between detainees from rival gangs and spread to the detention center's outdoor yard, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Nearby sheriff's stations sent additional deputies to separate the detainees. The brawl was diffused "within minutes" after tear gas was used, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Fights among incarcerated gang members periodically break out at state jails, prisons and immigrant detention facilities, sometimes sparking riots.

The federal Department of Homeland Security contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to staff and manage the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, which holds about 900 detainees who are in the process of being deported or awaiting resolution of their cases in immigration courts.

Ten detainees were treated for injuries, including two who suffered serious head injuries.

Sheriff's officials will evaluate how Mira Loma guards separate detainees based on gang affiliation, Whitmore said. About 45 detainees involved in the riot have been identified as suspected gang members and moved to other federal facilities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/ap_ ... ees_riot_1

Riot at Mira Loma Detention Center under investigation

L.A. County sheriff's officials are looking into the gang-related 'melee' that broke out Tuesday at the Lancaster facility. Two detainees were badly injured.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
11:34 AM PDT, April 23, 2008

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials are investigating a riot that broke out Tuesday involving hundreds of immigration detainees at a county-run facility in Lancaster, where guards had to use tear gas grenades to restore order, authorities said today.

The Sheriff's Department contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to house about 900 detainees awaiting deportation at the Mira Loma Detention Center, according to sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Sheriff's and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel spent much of the night interviewing detainee witnesses, and some who instigated the riot may be prosecuted on criminal charges, authorities said.

ICE officials plan to send a review team to Mira Loma this week to conduct an in-depth inquiry.

"Any incident not only puts the lives of the detainees but also the lives of the sheriff's officers and department personnel in harm's way," said Virginia Kice, a Los Angeles regional spokeswoman for ICE. "We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure safe, secure and humane conditions for those in our custody."

Tuesday's riot started as a morning fight between two detainees from rival gangs, then escalated by 1:30 p.m. into a "melee" in the detention center's outdoor yard, Kice and Whitmore said.

Additional deputies came to the detention center from nearby Lancaster and Palmdale stations to assist the guards with separating detainees, and the riot was diffused "within minutes," Whitmore said.

Two detainees suffered serious, though not life-threatening, head injuries during the riot and were taken to a local hospital, Whitmore said. About 20 other detainees suffered minor injuries and no deputies were injured, Whitmore said.

Mira Loma guards routinely separate detainees based on gang affiliation, and that process will be evaluated as part of the sheriff's investigation into the riot, Whitmore said. Gang leaders, or "shot callers," inside the facility can be placed in isolation, in different cell blocks or moved to other facilities, he said.

Already, 50 detainees involved in Tuesday's riot have been identified as gang members and bused to other federal facilities, he said this morning. Whitmore would not say what gangs those detainees were affiliated with or which gangs were involved in the riot.

"We do the very best we can to identify, isolate and secure them in the facility and one of the reasons we have not had any incidents up there is because of that," Whitmore said. "The big key to managing any jail is identifying an inmate's affiliation."

Last year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $10-million plan to expand Mira Loma.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 2963.story

This needs to go on the homepage under Illegal Alien Riots.

W

Ah yes......just more hard working, decent people only here to seek a better life demonstrating their superior values and ethics.

How long before the same, only on a much bigger scale, begins to break out on our streets?

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3128--0-0.html

For goodness sakes! How on earth can any elected politician who is supposed to be protecting the interests of Americans, ignore this and argue for any measures which would protect and or grant amnesty to these illegal criminals?

It's beyond me!

Originally Posted by azwreath

Ah yes......just more hard working, decent people only here to seek a better life demonstrating their superior values and ethics.

How long before the same, only on a much bigger scale, begins to break out on our streets?

Unfortunately it already has broken out on our streets and the elected officials continue to ignore the problem thinking we're not going to notice the rise in violent crimes in areas where IA reside which then spreads out to other areas where innocent victims are targeted or killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

since it involved illegals and gangs, why not let them fight it out and kill each other, less people to deport, less gang members who can return who are illegal

Just think--the Kennedy McCain bill would have granted these rioters amnesty and possible citizenship.

Isn't this the second time this has happened in the last couple of months? Seems I read a similar story before.