A group of Illinois lawmakers who were denied entry into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s processing facility in suburban Broadview in June returned on Monday, court order in hand, and toured the facility for roughly an hour.
The U.S. representatives — Jesus “Chuy” García, Delia Ramirez, Jonathan Jackson and Danny Davis — said they were troubled by the conditions they saw in the facility, which has been the setting for heated protests as federal agents conducted immigration arrests across the area under “Operation Midway Blitz.”
The lawmakers said ICE expects immigration arrests to ramp up in the near future. While the facility only had two detainees on Monday, they said ICE anticipates increasing staffing at the facility with 85 additional agents. Eight-five other agents may also soon be added to ICE’s administrative field office in downtown Chicago, they said.
The politicians are not the first ones to tour the facility. U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood toured the facility in November, when an ICE official had also warned her about planned increased staffing. The Sun-Times has previously reported that 1,000 federal agents could be back by March“We came to see the conditions with our own eyes and we came to ask questions directly,” García said. “We came to ensure that people in government custody are treated with basic dignity and humanity.”
Garcia stressed that the type of surveillance, like face-scanning and fingerprint technology, that is being used to approach and detain those being targeted “should be chilling to every American who cares about the constitution and rule of law.”
Garcia said ICE officials tried to distance themselves from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, which has been operating under Commander At Large Gregory Bovino, arresting people in the streets.
ICE officials “think that their protocols are better than” Border Patrol’s, Garcia said.
Ramirez, who is on the Department of Homeland Security oversight committee, criticized the facility for holding people overnight, even though it is not designed to.
A staff member in the building told the Democratic lawmakers there were “at least over 150 detainees” at the height of immigration enforcement campaign, even though the building has a capacity of 125, Ramirez said.
“Imagine 150 people in a facility with four detention space cells. Three bathrooms for 80 people. No privacy whatsoever,” Ramirez said.
Jackson said he saw a “very frightened man” who was detained Monday morning and was a constituent of Ramirez. Lawmakers added that no medical or mental health personnel were on site.
There were also four storage bins full of personal belongings, a sign that read “no aliens beyond this point” and a signed picture of United States Security of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, according to the Illinois representatives.
Garcia insisted that the group’s visit was only the beginning of their mission for transparency.
“We will be back, and we’ll demand answers,” Garcia said.
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