By Staff Reporter |
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused Arizona Democrats of lying about conditions at the immigration detention facility in Mesa.
Arizona Democratic Reps. Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03) and Greg Stanton (AZ-04) claimed to have witnessed last week “inhumane” and “alarming” issues — specifically, overcrowding and plumbing — at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (AROCC), located within the Mesa Gateway Airport.
Ansari and Stanton said AROCC has consistently exceeded its intended capacity (about 160 people) this year. The facility has reportedly exceeded 770 detainees on a daily basis.
The pair also took issue with AROCC holding illegal immigrants past the intended 12-hour holding time which the facility was designed to support — sometimes, for several days. A proposed bill from the pair would mandate, in part, that ICE facilities may only hold illegal aliens for 12 hours at a time.
Ansari said in a press release that their observations indicated conditions were “starkly different from the picture ICE presents during scheduled visits.”
Stanton said the discomfort of illegal aliens in these detention facilities was reason enough to stop mass deportations.
“[W]e’re going to fight every effort to expand [mass deportations] — including the kinds of dangerous, overcrowded operations we’ve seen right here in Mesa,” said Stanton.
A spokesman with DHS said allegations of issues with overcrowding and plumbing were false, per a statement received by the Arizona Mirror.
“Any allegation of overcrowding at AROCC is false,” said the spokesman. “There are no recurring plumbing issues. On the rare instance when a toilet issue occurs, the facility staff immediately moves detainees from the affected cell and maintenance is immediately initiated.”
DHS has taken an active presence online and in the media to debunk claims of wrongdoing on the agency’s part.
Another recent viral story accused the Trump administration of wrongfully prolonging the detainment of a mother and father traveling to see their adult son dying of terminal cancer. DHS clarified that the parents were detained for reentering the country illegally after their fatally ill son had already returned to Mexico.
Last week’s visit from Ansari and Stanton constituted the latest in a series of actions taken by Arizona’s congressional Democrats to prioritize illegal aliens within their respective offices’ scope of constituent services. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07) has also been party to these frequent visits to immigration detention facilities and other similar relief and advocacy efforts.
AZ Free News reported last month that a majority of Grijalva’s press releases, X posts, and official remarks in congressional records pertained to defending illegal aliens from the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Arizona’s top Democrats say that issues at AROCC and other ICE practices justify a budgetary freeze for ICE pending a total overhaul of agency practices.
While Arizona’s congressional Democrats have met with illegal aliens in ICE custody and advocated for their release, Arizona’s congressional Republicans have assisted with putting those illegal aliens into ICE custody.
Earlier this month, Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh (AZ-08) announced he had assisted with the capture of three illegal aliens while tagging along with Border Patrol on a border security sweep.
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