April 1, 2026: New Mexico Department of justice files emergency petition to block unlawful immigration detention agreement in Otero County.
March 25, 2026: The Otero County Commission extends ICE detention contract at OCPC after previous emergency vote was deemed illegal by the New Mexico Department of Justice.
February 5, 2026: The Immigrant Safety Act (HB9) becomes law in the state of New Mexico, outlawing county contracts to operate ICE prisons as of May 20, 2026.
January 9, 2026: Citing a quarantine due to a chickenpox outbreak, Management and Training Corporation (MTC) blocks essential legal calls and court hearings for an entire unit of detained people.
December 17, 2025: After Management and Training Corporation (MTC) operated OCPC for several weeks without contractual authority, Otero County retroactively extends their intergovernmental services agreement with ICE to detain people until March 15, 2026.
November 1, 2025: MTC and ICE continue detention of people at OCPC without contractual authority to do so, as Otero County's agreement with ICE for the detention of individuals expires.
June 15, 2024: Jhon Javier Benavides Quintana, a detained kitchen worker, dies in OCPC. ICE fails to provide clarity to his family about what happened and does not repatriate his body to his family in Ecuador until five months later.
April 1, 2024: MTC guards place five detained Venezuelan men in solitary confinement in retaliation for the group’s hunger strike against ICE’s attempts to remove them to Mexico.
Fall 2023: Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center performs 25 interviews with detained men and women, reporting hostility from guards including verbal harassment, inadequate food and nutrition, and unsanitary conditions. The impacts of food quality included rising blood pressure and inedibility food for those with diabetes.
August 2022: In a $2.3 million deal, OCPC begins to detain women.
June 23, 2021: ICE issues a letter of concern to MTC about violations of detention standards, finding “at-risk” conditions of inadequate staffing, compliance issues, unauthorized suspension of recreation services, lack of medical servives, and abuse of the voluntary work program. ICE finds “deficient” conditions of a lack of a safety plan, inadequate food service staffing, and the suspension of religious services.
January 2021: Innovation Law Lab and Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention release Process by Torment, an extensive report on human rights abuses in Otero. Some of the many events cited include:
- An MTC guard hurt the wrist of a detained person, and even after a great deal of swelling, the detained person was not able to receive medical care. When asked who attacked him, the detained person revealed that he didn’t know because guards often conceal their name tags. At least three other individuals have corroborated the fact that guards conceal their identities to avoid retribution.
- There have been multiple reports of MTC guards denying detained people food if they didn’t sit exactly where they were told, with one individual claiming he had missed many meals because of this.
- At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many guards did not properly wear masks and yelled at anyone who expressed concern about these circumstances. One detained person was placed in solitary confinement for 14 days after contracting COVID-19, reporting that he was treated like a criminal and was unable to bathe himself for extended periods.
- There is a lack of support for non-English speaking detained people, with many being asked to sign documents they don’t understand. One individual who had experienced a brain injury and was illiterate did not receive appropriate accommodations to understand the immigration documents he was presented with.
July 30, 2020: The Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) received complaints from ACLU, LAIAC, and SFDP alleging unfit conditions at Otero. CRCL performed an inspection and “revealed significant deficiencies in Otero’s grievance process, disciplinary process, use of segregation, and medical care.
- Grievances: Grievances are not thoroughly investigated by Otero officials, and the responses are not personalized to the situation. The sheer number of grievances made suggest a culture of rude, discourteous, and discriminatory treatment.
- Discipline and segregation: 14% of the grievances reviewed showed concerns of lack of due process and time left in segregation. CRCL expressed concern about detained peoples’ mental health during prolonged times of segregation and the failure of Grievance Officers to address reports of serious mental health problems. CRCL recommended to Otero that the length of time spent in segregation is appropriate and that mental health rounds be consistently conducted to support detained people.
- Medical Care: Grievances about medical and dental care made mention of medical co-payment fees. National Detention Standards do not authorize medical co-payments, but require that if they will be used “All residents are advised, in writing, at the time of admission to the facility of the guidelines of the copayment program.” These guidelines were not communicated. CRCL called for a revision of Otero’s healthcare policies, specifically ending the copayment program.
May 2020: Covid cases spread rapidly due to the proximity of detained people. At least 31 cases were confirmed by mid-May.
March 2020: Two cases of Coronavirus are found at OCPC, affecting a worker and a detained person. Over two dozen immigrant advocacy groups and public officials sent a letter to ICE calling for the “orderly and coordinated release of detained migrants.” But this request was not answered.
January 2020: As hunger strikes and suicide threats continue, a team of inspectors run by the government-owned Nakamoto Group performed an inspection of Otero noting no serious conflicts or poor conditions. In the previous year, 257 grievances and 301 accusations of disciplinary infractions had been made. The Nakamoto report is incongruent with detained peoples’ experiences.
October 2019: Cuban asylum seekers detained at OCPC threaten hunger striking and self-harm in protest of conditions in Otero.
March 2019: ICE force feeds protesting hunger striker Ajay Kumar.
June 1, 2019: Johana Medina León, a 25 year old trans asylum seeker from El Salvador, dies shortly after being detained at OCPC. In late May 2019, she began to feel sick in Otero custody. Medina León had worked as a nurse and knew she needed IV fluids but her requests were denied. She even went as far as to ask for water, sugar, and salt to make her own IVs but the Otero officials refused. Her condition deteriorated rapidly and all her requests for help were denied. She asked to be deported back to El Salvador where she faced violence for being transgender just so she wouldn’t have to suffer in detention. She never got the chance and passed away on June 1, 2019.
2019: Under the name plantados (unmovable), a group of detained men protest prolonged detention and lack of communication from ICE Deportation Officers about possible release (see p. 11) and are faced with brutal physical and psychological retaliation.
- During a peaceful protest in the recreation yard asking for communication from DOs, 20 plantado protestors are met with force from 50-60 Otero officials, including the use of pepper spray and the threat of firearms.
- Officers search plantado protestors’ dorms, leaving them in disarray and siezing personal belongings including correspondence, court documents, and official grievances filed against MTC staff.
- Officers place plantados in solitary confinement.
- Plantado protestors, specifically Afro-Cuban members, face racial harassment from Otero officials. Other non-Cubans report experiencing being treated like animals and receiving racist slurs from guards.
- Officials tell one plantado in solitary confinement and on hunger striking that he will be forcibly fed against his will.
- Officers tell another protester he that will be put in solitary confinement for 22 straight days, and the protestor manages to leave solitary after 8 days.
July 2018: Freedom for Immigrants and Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee publish a report documenting complaints at OCPC regarding inadequate and poor quality food, inadequate medical attention, harassment by staff and guards, and the use of solitary confinement to punish and intimidate people in detention.
January 3, 2018: Reporting from the Criminal Justice Project shows that conditions at OCPC are even worse than what was reported by OIG in December 2017 and highlights issues of medical neglect.
December 11, 2017: The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) publishes report of audit of OCPC revealing arbitrarily-applied segregation and lock-down and a general failure to communicate rights or allow detained people to appeal decisions of segregation. The report also notes mold and peeling paint in bathrooms and a lack of access to a working telephone.
May 4, 2016: The Department of Homeland Security officially resolves and closes the complaint from December 4, 2012. They reiterate their findings and state that they “appreciate the work that has been done by ICE to address CRCL’s concerns.”
April 7, 2016: Rafael Barcenas-Padilla, 51, passes away from bronchopneumonia three days after leaving the OCPC. While detained in Otero, he became ill for six days with a fever of 104 degrees and dangerously low blood oxygen levels. These levels should have prompted immediate hospitalization, but only one call was made to a doctor who prescribed medication for upper respiratory infections. Otero did not have the nebulizer available to administer the medication, so he received none. It took three additional days for him to be hospitalized, at which point he succumbed to his illness.
2015: Local advocates document (p. 17) that of 24 reviewed notes from conversations with individuals detained, 79 percent issued complaints regarding conditions such as inadequate medical attention, unsanitary medical attention, cold temperatures, and lack of information about legal processes.
December 4, 2012: The Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) publishes a memorandum of March 2012 investigation into conditions at Otero, conducted in response to complaints from 2011 regarding violations of due process, inadequate medical care, retaliation for participation in hunger strikes, and other grave human rights abuses.
January 2011: The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico releases Outsorcing Responsibility: The Human Cost of Privatized Immigration Detention in Otero County.
March 12, 2009: A follow-up report to the September 2008 ICE Detention Review notes additional conditions issues, including the presence of flies in the kitchen area and other safety violations.
September 18, 2008: An ICE Detention Review shows that months after the facility opened, OCPC was not providing people detained with proper nutrition and not providing detained kitchen workers with proper safety equipment.
May 23, 2008: OCPC opens with a capacity to hold 1,089 people. It is owned by Otero County and is operated by ICE through an intergovernmental service agreement between the county and the US Department of Homeland Security. Private firm Management and Training Corporation runs day-to-day operations (Why Doesn’t Anyone Investigate This Place? page 9).
Click here for more on the Otero County Processing Center.
