By Staff Reporter |
Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03) made another oversight visit to an immigration detention facility this week.
Wednesday’s visit marked the 13th since Ansari took office. Ansari’s latest visit took place at the ICE Phoenix Field Office, which contains a temporary hold facility.
Ansari claimed that she was concerned about detainees experiencing medical neglect and prolonged stays in overcrowded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
One progressive outlet reported that the average length of detainment increased from eight to 10 hours up to 20 hours while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) strongly disputed that claim, maintaining that detainees are held for no longer than 12 hours.
Ansari rebutted the DHS claim, alluding to an outdated waiver issued last summer under former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem allowing holding facilities to expand the 12-hour limit to 72 hours. That waiver was removed in recent months around the time that the new DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, took office.
“Up until a couple of months ago, DHS from the highest levels had sent down a waiver to every single ICE facility across the United States to say that it’s okay if the time limit for someone being held somewhere, the capacity limits are broken, and that waiver no longer exists,” said Ansari.
Ansari told a press gaggle outside the field office that she was barred from speaking to detainees. Ansari accused the detention centers of treating detainees “incredibly inhumanely,” conditions she says are exacerbated by alleged excessive detention times.
“We know that there is really no access to quality food. There are no access to showers for people here,” said Ansari in a post. “The conditions are not meant for people to be sleeping here. There are no beds.”
Critics say it only makes sense that there aren’t any beds in the facility since detainees stay for relatively short periods.
Last September, Ansari came under fire for falsely describing the illegal aliens held at the ICE Eloy Detention Center as her “constituents.”
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