Published: March 26, 2010
Updated: 1:08 p.m.
'Reforms' on way for immigration detainees
By CINDY CARCAMO, DOUG IRVING and ERIC CARPENTER

ACLU officials say the mentally disabled Costa Mesa man, who has the cognitive ability of a child, has been locked up for five years.

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LOS ANGELES A 29-year-old Costa Mesa man with a mental disability has been held in immigration detention for five years without due process, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced Friday.

Jose Antonio Franco Gonzalez, who has moderate mental retardation that keeps him from telling time and knowing his own birthday, is one of two men with mental disabilities who civil rights officials say are being held without due process at the Otay-Mesa detention facility in San Diego County.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said pending litigation would prohibit them from speaking to the details of the two cases and a formal statement was forthcoming.

But ICE’s western regional spokeswoman, Virginia Kice, said her agency is working on “sweeping reformsâ€