Federal immigration officers are blasting members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation who visited school college students at a Louisiana detention facility for spreading “baseless” accusations.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern argue that Tufts College pupil Rumeysa Ozturk’s human rights are being violated at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention heart they visited final week.
The Democrats spoke of the “harrowing” circumstances that Ozturk and different international nationals are coping with on the facility in Basile, a small, rural city in southern Louisiana, after they landed at Logan Airport in Boston.
They argued that the detainees they met with are being denied satisfactory medical care, subjected to sleep deprivation, not effectively fed, and usually are not routinely supplied with requirements like bathroom paper or blankets to sleep with.
“It was heartbreaking, and it is enraging,” Pressley mentioned at a information convention final Wednesday. “They are humiliated daily, degraded, and denied the basic necessities needed by any human being.”
The delegation additionally accused federal brokers of depriving care to pregnant girls on the facility.
An ICE spokesperson has responded to the allegations, saying they’re “not only baseless but appear to be a deliberate attempt to discredit the dedicated professionals who uphold ICE’s mission with integrity and care.”
In an announcement, the spokesperson highlighted how all detainees are offered a “comprehensive overview of medical care processes and services available, including specialized care for pregnant women.” The Basile facility staffs a specialist girls’s well being specialist, the spokesperson added.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement categorically rejects the false narrative that individuals in our custody are denied access to adequate medical care or nutritious food,” the assertion reads partially. “Such claims are misleading, undermine public trust, and misrepresent the reality of the high standards our personnel uphold daily.”
Ozturk, a fifth-year doctoral pupil learning at Tufts College on a pupil visa, was apprehended by masked immigration brokers in Somerville final month. Her arrest got here after her visa was revoked over alleged assist for Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, in an op-ed she co-authored within the pupil newspaper final 12 months.
A federal choose has ordered that immigration officers should take Ozturk to Vermont by Might 1. Ozturk has not been charged with any crime and has remained in Louisiana because the day after her apprehension.
Lawmakers have argued Ozturk was locked up in Louisiana in order that immigration officers might discover a extra favorable courtroom. The Trump administration has maintained that there was not satisfactory house to deal with her in New England.
In a declaration earlier this month, Ozturk described that her bronchial asthma had been triggered by overcrowding in a holding cell crammed with “unsanitary, unsafe and inhumane” circumstances.
“There is a mouse in our cell,” Ozturk mentioned. “The boxes they provide for our clothing are very dirty and they don’t give us adequate hygiene supplies.”
The ICE spokesperson has countered that “detainees have access to 24/7 medical services, including mental health care, dental care, chronic disease management, and emergency treatment.”
Mellissa Harper, director of ICE’s subject workplace in New Orleans, additionally took exception to the delegation for allegedly arriving on the Basile facility “accompanied by ACLU staff and media who filmed ICE personnel without consent – jeopardizing their privacy and safety.”
“These tactics do nothing but endanger hardworking Americans,” she mentioned. “We take seriously our responsibility to provide accurate information to Congress and the public. Our focus remains on delivering lawful, humane treatment to all detainees – including pregnant individuals – in full compliance with agency policy and federal law.”
Workers Photograph By Matt Stone/Boston Herald
ICE agent badge (Workers Photograph By Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
