Rep. Angie Craig Pushes Trump Administration to Shut Down Notorious ICE Processing Center Run by Private Prison Operator, CoreCivic
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representative Angie Craig joined 108 of her colleagues in pushing the Trump Administration to shut down the notorious Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas run by private prison contractor, CoreCivic. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Rep. Craig and her colleagues blasted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CoreCivic for profiting off the detention of migrant families, including children.
Dilley, where five-year old Liam Ramos was held after being picked up by ICE in Columbia Heights, MN, is the only ICE facility in the country dedicated to detaining families with children. Current and former detainees have been outspoken about the unacceptable and dehumanizing conditions at the facility, including food contaminated with worms and mold, a lack of adequate education for school-age children and delayed and denied medical care. Detainees blame both ICE and CoreCivic, a company in which President Trump owns stock.
“Former and current detained families describe horrific conditions perpetuated by CoreCivic and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that are meant to strip them of their dignity and make them feel hopeless,” the Members wrote. “Americans have watched ICE’s brutality play out in their communities, but what happens behind the walls of the Dilley detention facility remains out of sight by design. DHS must stop imprisoning families, end this inhumanity, and close the Dilley detention facility.”
The Members specifically called out CoreCivic for using President Trump’s mass deportation agenda to profit millions of dollars from its contract with ICE.
“Patrick Swindle, President and CEO of CoreCivic, recently boasted that CoreCivic provides the most humane, most efficient, most compliant, and best value to the government,” the Members continued. “Here, ‘best value’ means maximizing profit through lack of trained personnel, inedible food, and insufficient medical care. CoreCivic cares about their bottom line, not about the people in their care.”
“No child and family should be imprisoned for seeking safety by legitimately following United States immigration laws,” the Members concluded.
Rep. Craig has taken the Trump Administration to task over its reckless and lawless immigration agenda and has fought to bring home Minnesotans wrongfully detained by ICE.
Last month, she successfully secured the release of her constituent, Andrea Pedro-Francisco, who was held in ICE detention while suffering from an untreated ovarian cyst. In May, she traveled to El Paso, TX to visit Pedro-Francisco and conduct oversight of two ICE detention facilities—Camp East Montana and the El Paso Service Processing Center.
Earlier this year, she conducted four oversight visits of the ICE processing center at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. Following her third visit with Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05), she sent a letter to former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem expressing concern that no detainees were present during their visit despite reports that individuals were being held at Whipple and slamming Noem for previously denying them their constitutional right to conduct unannounced oversight visits. Rep. Craig also introduced articles of impeachment against former Secretary Noem in January before she was ultimately fired in March.
She has vocally opposed the opening of any new ICE facilities in Minnesota, including a proposed ICE detention center in Shakopee, which she successfully quashed alongside state and local leaders. And this Congress, she helped introduce the Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in ICE and CBP Custody Act to establish standards of care for individuals held in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE custody.
You can read the full text of the letter here.
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