ICE investigator alleges case manager from new DHS immigration detention watchdog used employment to 'groom and manipulate' an Iraqi man detained in Otay Mesa
A contractor who worked for a new Department of Homeland Security office that oversees immigration detention and takes complaints from detainees has been charged with carrying on a sexual relationship with a man awaiting deportation at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
The ICE investigator wrote that by reviewing recorded phone calls between the pair, “I was able to establish a pattern of dependency on the part of soliciting Hernandez’s assistance in his release from custody. Through phone calls and messaging communication Hernandez exercised a form of control over by encouraging him and instructing him how to avoid deportation.”
She did not respond Thursday to a request for comment, and it was not immediately clear who was representing her.The office is a relatively new part of DHS that was established by Congress in 2019 and began operating in 2022. The office is independent from other DHS agencies — such as ICE and Customs and Border Protection — and its employees and contractors provide oversight of detention facilities and investigate complaints by immigration detainees about detention facilities and DHS personnel.
By late March, Hernandez’s supervisor instructed her not to go to the Otay Mesa facility until further notice, according to the criminal complaint. An ICE employee reported that she showed up anyway. “The video includes footage of Hernandez standing near the cell doors for a long period of time visiting when he was assigned to solitary confinement,” the ICE agent wrote in the warrants. The agent later learned that on several occasions, Hernandez had met with the detainee in the detention center’s law library — an area “where no video footage is available” and where there are private areas not monitored by staff.
In late April, the DHS contractor that employed Hernandez fired her, according to the warrants. After losing her job and after the detention facility blocked her number, she continued trying to contact the detainee, according to the complaint and the warrants.
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