The US immigration authorities urged the immediate relocation of immigrants detained in a center in Torrance County (New Mexico) due to the precarious sanitary conditions and the lack of half of the personnel necessary for its proper operation.
A report by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Joseph Cuffari, found that the lack of personnel is serious and that the living conditions there lead to risks to the health of the people housed in that center.
This federal agency requested the “immediate relocation” of immigrants detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) in New Mexico.
“I am alarmed that conditions have become unsafe, unhealthy and unsuitable for human beings,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat.
“This cannot be ignored,” Lofgren assured in a message and on Twitter.
The congresswoman stressed that the conditions in the Estancia Detention Center in Torrance County demand that the government “immediately end the contract and close that center”.
“During our inspection we found such bad conditions in that center that we issued an administrative alert to notify ICE”, indicates the report from the DHS office.
Details that the center should have 245 permanent employees for proper operation, but had only 133 full-time employees , this is a 83 % of the appropriate staffing.
The inspectors indicated that both staff and detainees were “exposed to excessive and avoidable insanitary conditions,” and that 83 of the cells had faulty plumbing, including toilets and sinks that did not work, were clogged or constantly leaking water.
The shortcomings in the security area, according to the report, included inadequate surveillance of detainees and places that could not be observed under the stairs and behind some walls.
ICE responded to the Inspector General’s report that the latter “Ignored the facts that were presented to him in order to reach a preconceived conclusion.”
“ICE is firmly committed to ensuring that aliens in its custody reside in safe, healthy and humane environments”, wrote the acting director of ICE, Jason Houser.
For its part, CoreCivic, the private company that operates that detention center and receives about 2 million dollars a month for the accommodation of immigrants, also rejected The report.
“This deliberate effort to falsely portray our company and this facility is all the more disturbing because it was done under the guise of legitimate oversight,” Steve Owen, vice president of the signature.
DHS investigators visited the detention center unannounced last February 1-3 when there were 176 detained immigrants, all men.
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