9 Prisoners Injured in Protest of INS Delays

LANCASTER — Nine federal detainees suffered minor injuries Friday after deputies used sting balls and pepper spray to quell a five-hour protest at the Mira Loma Detention Center.

Up to 150 immigrant prisoners, frustrated with lengthy delays in court hearings, joined the demonstrations that began about noon, said Leonard Kovensky, assistant district director for detention and exportation for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In a simultaneous show of rebellion, men in several prison yards at the facility refused to return to their barracks, instead standing about and chanting, and demanding that they be deported or released on bond. Several demonstrators stripped to their boxer shorts and T-shirts, flinging county-issued bright orange shirts and pants onto razor wires atop fences.

Extra deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the facility for the INS, were called in about 4:10 p.m. after about 70 inmates continued to protest, said Deputy Boris Nikolof.