Nothing like a surprise trip to a government facility to uncover all the broken rules, compromised regulations, and appalling conditions being allowed there.
That is what happened yesterday evening when Arizona’s three Democratic Representatives, Yassamin Ansari, Adelita Grijalva, and Greg Stanton made an unannounced late evening visit to the DHS-ICE Administered Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa.
According to Representative Stanton, no one let them through the front door, and they had to go around the side of the facility, where planes were being loaded and unloaded.
What they saw confirmed what they had been hearing from ICE detainees through announced visits where government officials attempted to cover up how bad the conditions were.
Appearing with reporters after their visit, the three Representatives told of seeing massive overcrowding of 40 to 50 people packed in hot cells with signs above the entrance saying ‘Maximum Allowed 27.’
The detainees they spoke with also confirmed, in the brief time the government officials did not notice that happening, that many of them had been in this crowded facility for days rather than the one day maximum the government had claimed.
Representative Grijalva described seeing what she saw as the people in these crowded cells “Lying like sardines” and “frightening” with one detainee asking her for “sanitary napkins” while others showed her food that was “disgusting, and another asking “Why aren’t they treating us like human beings? This is inhumane.”
Grijalva also observed medical neglect where some people who were ill still being cramped in with the healthy people.
Representative Ansari called what she saw “Shameful,” “Horrifying,” and “Unacceptable. ICE is breaking every possible, any possible standard of human dignity that we should have in the United States of America, breaking laws left and right. No accountability, no oversight whatsoever.”
Representative Stanton called it “Shocking,” and reported “Overcrowding to a level that is completely unacceptable. People lying on the floor next to each other side by side by side on a concrete floor. This is a facility that was meant for short term stays as people await their flights for deportation. We now know that detainees were staying here for multiple days. Unfortunately, they could not tell us for the detainees that were there how long each of them had been there. But it was clear that many of them have been there for a long period of time in these conditions in which each of the holding cells were significantly overcrowded, significantly beyond the capacity.”
Please click here to watch the full news briefing below.
After the newsbriefing, Representative Ansari released a social media video, detailing her observations.
So did Representative Grijalva:
Representatives Ansari and Grijalva are right when they say this should not be happening in the United States and no human being should be treated this way.
The people who are committing these crimes need to be replaced and charged.
The people who allowed this to happen in the Trump Government need to be fired and charged.
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Truly a shame that Mullin, Homan and others of their ilk who are responsible for these atrocities can’t be held under the horrific conditions they’ve intentionally inflicted. Of course if they were one would hear endless whining and crying about how unfair it is.
How many steps away from extermination camps are these loathsome criminals?