Rep. Giménez to visit ICE detention centers in Miami after Herald uncovers harsh conditions
Rep. Carlos Giménez plans to tour Florida facilities holding immigration detainees following a Miami Herald investigation into harsh conditions and use of force at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.
The federal lawmaker said that he first learned about the reported conditions at FDC Miami when a journalist from the Washington Journal's C-Span program asked him about the Herald story this morning.
'I will be investigating those conditions,' said the Miami Republican during an interview on Capitol Hill. 'Right now is the first I've heard of it.'
The Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami has been housing detainees in civil immigration custody since February, when the Federal Bureau of Prisons signed a contract with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house immigrants in prisons amid overcrowding at ICE detention centers.
Six detainees told the Herald that officers had launched crowd-control grenades and sprayed what appeared to them as rubber bullets or pellets into a room with about 50 detainees in April in response to their protests over lack of water, food, and medication. The detainees said that they had begun to overflow toilets to get the attention of officers, and the room was full of water. Afterward, the men were transferred back to an ICE detention center. At least two detainees filed lawsuits about the incident in May, which were signed by at least 30 detainees who say they were also present when it happened.
'I keep reliving the explosions over and over again,' one wrote in the lawsuit. A judge dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice due to procedural errors. 'It all felt like unnecessary torture.'
Giménez said that he has investigated ICE facilities in the past during his tenure as mayor of Miami-Dade County, and would 'protest to the administration' if he found anything inappropriate.
'If I find something that is wrong, or shouldn't be, I'll be the first to come out and say, 'by the way I found something, this is what's going on,'' Giménez said on C-Span.
Detainees, as well as employees who work at the facility, described harsh conditions, including broken toilets and air conditioning, and out-of-service elevators. They also reported day-long lockdowns and a lack of outdoor space. The immigration detainees are not at the facility for criminal convictions, but instead have ongoing civil cases to determine if they can stay in the U.S. ICE data shows that about half of the ICE detainees at FDC have criminal records – and half don't.
Three employees spoke with the Herald on the condition of anonymity, due to fear of retaliation.
'I've seen some inmates just sit there and cry,' said one officer. 'Some cry all day. Grown men, just crying.'
Detainees also have limited access to counsel, according to lawyers who said that the jail is not giving the ICE inmates key legal documents for their cases or ways to send legal mail out.
'There is an access-to-justice crisis here,' said Evelyn Wiese, a senior litigation attorney at Americans for Immigrant Justice. 'There is a due-process crisis.'
Roberto Lugones, Giménez's communications director, confirmed to the Herald that the representative is in the process of planning a tour of a local immigration facility, but does not have one scheduled. He said the representative is looking into touring Krome North Service Processing Center, which is in his district. Detainees and lawyers have repeatedly reported to the Herald severe overcrowding at Krome since February, with people sleeping on the floor for days. Last week, a group of Cuban detainees staged a protest, lining up in the courtyard to spell 'SOS' with their bodies.
Other federal lawmakers from South Florida, including Democrats Rep. Frederica Wilson and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, recently visited Krome. They raised alarm about conditions at the facility as well as about recent deaths in ICE custody in South Florida.
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