Two Bay Area members of Congress — U.S. Reps. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek, and Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose — have sent a letter to the Trump administration opposing possible efforts to reopen Federal Correctional Institution Dublin to house immigrant detainees.
FCI Dublin is within DeSaulnier’s congressional district.
The letter — addressed to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — stresses the facility’s hazardous conditions that shut it down last year.
The former prison has an ugly history of inmate abuse, including incarcerated immigrants. The representatives said the facility’s infrastructure is insufficient to hold incarcerated people and urged the administration to abandon any plans to reopen it.
“As you know, BOP formalized the ‘permanent closure’ of FCI Dublin in December 2024,” Desaulnier and Lofgren wrote. “Officials cited critical infrastructure, safety, and environmental deficiencies; an inability to hire and retain sufficient staff; and an intractable culture of sexual abuse and retaliation as reasons for its closure.”
They pointed out in February 2024, court-ordered independent assessments found hazardous mold and asbestos in living areas, confirming years of reports.
They also said in an August hearing in federal court, Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons William Lothrop testified that the prison would require “tens of millions of dollars” in repairs before it could safely open again.
The letter said the facility isn’t equipped to be an immigration detention center and the prison historically housed people serving criminal sentences post-conviction. They said immigration detainees have ongoing legal proceedings and have a constitutional right to communicate with legal counsel, something for which the prison has neither the space nor the infrastructure.
FCI Dublin’s notorious past
The representatives also addressed the grim history of the prison, which included sexual abuse, retaliation against whistleblowers, inhumane treatment, and withholding of necessary medical care.
Several former employees, including a former chaplain and former warden Ray Garcia, were convicted of acts of sexual misconduct against inmates.
“We also cannot forget the history of FCI Dublin. The cruelty of housing detainees at a facility that before its closure had been dubbed a ‘rape club’ due to years of horrendous sexual abuse of incarcerated people — dozens of whom were immigrant women — by prison staff cannot be ignored,” DeSaulnier and Lofgren wrote, “It is well documented that some prison staff intentionally preyed on immigrant women and threatened to retaliate against individuals who reported their abusers by working to get them deported.”
The representatives asked for any information on steps taken towards reopening FCI Dublin, including copies of security and infrastructure assessments referenced by Lothrop in court testimony, which they said they believe was shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a purpose that has not yet been made public.
They also want information on how BOP will assist FCI Dublin staff members who didn’t participate in abuse but were displaced by its closure.
DeSaulnier and Lofgren said they want information by March 5.
A message left for a BOP spokesperson Tuesday was not immediately returned.