Varick Street's record on group rights presentations is not the center's only violation of the standards, according to immigration advocates. This was observed by an NLJ reporter in January. Advocates' phone numbers aren't posted next to telephones in at least one unit, according to the ABA's Nugent, who toured the facility in December. The law library is sometimes missing necessary materials, Nugent says. He says INS officials admitted that materials are frequently destroyed or removed from the library and are not promptly replaced.
Detainees are routinely strip-searched after meetings with their lawyers.
Nugent says officials acknowledged during the tour that any visit with a lawyer raises the reasonable suspicion that the standard demands for a strip search. The INS' Thorn disputes all this. He says that the facility meets the law library standards. He says that strip searches are conducted only if there is a reason to believe that contraband has been passed. Llewelyn Pritchard, who chairs the ABA's immigration pro bono program, sees Varick Street as a test case.