MINNESOTA REFORMER: U.S. Rep. Angie Craig makes unannounced visit to Whipple building, hub of ICE activity

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig made an unannounced visit on Thursday to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, the hub of the Trump administration’s deportation operations in Minnesota. Thousands of immigrants have passed through Whipple on the way to jails and detention facilities across the country.

Craig, a Democrat representing the south metro, said she came to verify the Trump administration’s compliance with a judge’s order affirming that members of Congress may conduct unannounced inspections of immigration facilities.

“I want to see what’s happening in real time and how people are being treated,” Craig told a group of reporters in the lobby of the Whipple building.

After waiting about 40 minutes, Craig was led back to inspect the detention facilities by ICE’s St. Paul Field Office Director David Easterwood.

She returned about a half hour later and said she was told there was one person there in custody. She was not permitted to meet with that individual — detained by Homeland Security Investigations, which handles serious crimes including drug trafficking, human smuggling and child exploitation — but did inspect the empty holding facilities, which she said appeared to be in “fairly decent order.”

Access to ICE facilities has been contested in the courts, with judges ruling in multiple cases that ICE illegally refused entry to members of Congress, immigrant attorneys and clergy.

After Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in January, Craig attempted to inspect Whipple with Democratic U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Kelly Morrison. They were turned away with the Trump administration citing a policy that members of Congress must provide seven days’ notice. Democratic members of Congress sued over that policy, and a judge ultimately sided with them.

“The point (of a congressional oversight visit) is for me at any point in time to be able to see what the conditions actually are for the people being held,” Craig said.

Craig also attempted to conduct an oversight visit with Omar on Feb. 20 after providing eight days advance notice, but ICE had apparently removed all detainees in preparation for their arrival.

Later that day, at least 10 people were released from custody in Whipple, according to Jack Lynch, a volunteer with the group Haven Watch, which provides phones, warm clothes and rides home to people coming out of detention. The next day, 30 people were released, he said.

Craig said she had people watching the exits of the Whipple building before and during her visit and it did not appear that detainees were moved out to avoid congressional oversight. She said she was also able to review the log of people detained in the facility.

Still, she said, “There’s a whole lot of trust that has to be restored in Minnesota.”

The federal government has been partially shut down for more than 50 days, now the longest period in history, with Democrats refusing to renew funding for ICE without greater accountability for agents, including body cameras, a ban on face coverings and a requirement that federal agents obtain judicial warrants to enter homes and businesses.

“We can’t just say Operation Metro Surge is over,” Craig said. “This will never be over, as far as I’m concerned, until we put the appropriate guardrails on the tactics that ICE is using.”

Immigration operations have slowed significantly in the Twin Cities metro area since the Trump administration announced an end to Operation Metro Surge on Feb. 12, although they haven’t stopped completely.

Craig said an ICE official told her on Thursday the agency made 43 arrests in the past week, not including arrests made by Homeland Security Investigations.

Haven Watch volunteers have seen about 15 people being released from Whipple each week since the start of the drawdown of Operation Metro Surge, Lynch said. That’s a significant decrease from the height of the federal operation.

More than 4,300 immigrants have been detained at Whipple since the start of the surge, according to government data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.

Whipple is not technically a detention center but rather a holding facility, where immigrants may be jailed for up to a few days before being transferred to county jails with ICE contracts or detention centers out of state.

Craig says she remains concerned about the welfare and treatment of Minnesotans now being held in Texas detention facilities.

More than 500 people arrested in Minnesota remain in detention in Texas, according to data from the Deportation Data Project, with some suffering severe medical issues including a woman with a large ovarian cyst at risk of rupture. Craig has tried to secure treatment for that woman, but to little avail.

Morrison visited the Camp East Montana facility near El Paso, the country’s largest immigrant detention center, and called the conditions “unbelievably inhumane.” Most people there have no serious criminal records.

“There are some horrific stories coming out of El Paso,” Craig said. “The lack of medical care … is something that every Minnesotan and every American should be ashamed of.”