Whipple Watchers Describe the Current Needs and Situation in ICE Detention Center
Minnesota Women's Press immigrant storytelling is supported by the Minnesota Council on Foundations.
(l–r) Natalie Ehret, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Melissa Melnick Gonzalez. Photo Sarah Whiting
At a media gathering outside of the Whipple Federal Building detention center on Friday, July 24, Congresswomen Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) and Pramila Jayapal (Washington State), along with local advocates, discussed the impact of Operation Metro Surge and ongoing issues with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They highlighted the trauma and economic damage caused by the operation, including the execution of Minnesota citizens Alex Pretti and Renée Good. They noted that 72 percent of detainees have no criminal convictions. They criticized restraints on legislative oversights and inhumane conditions in detention centers, including the use of leg restraints and ankle chains. Here are detailed comments from some of the speakers.
Natalie Ehret (r) of Haven Watch. Photo Sarah Whiting
Natalie Ehret of Haven Watch
Natalie Ehret, a local resident, spoke about creating Haven Watch outside the Whipple building seven months ago “because people were being released through the gate in the freezing cold, with no phone, no ride, no one waiting for them, and no way to get home. They came out hungry, frightened, and deeply traumatized. People from across this community — strangers — came together and made a simple promise: no one would walk out of that gate alone anymore.” Haven Watch has met hundreds of people at the gate “whether it was 20 below or 95 degrees.”
She added: “But the harm has never been limited to people inside Whipple or at other detention facilities around the country. Entire families were driven into hiding. We sometimes hear that they were sheltering in place, but that’s far too gentle of a word for what happened. They were hiding out of fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Parents were forced to choose between going to work and risking being kidnapped or staying home, unable to pay rent or buy food. Children missed school, pregnant women missed appointments, and became malnourished because they were too afraid to go buy food or go to their needed medical care. Even home offered these people no real safety. Children could often not sleep because they were terrified that armed agents would enter their home and take their parents, and sometimes they did.
“During the school year, one young child became so exhausted that he was falling asleep at school. So his teacher put a cot in the back of the classroom so he could sleep. Children in our community watched their mothers and fathers be thrown against walls and floors and dragged from their vehicles and taken away without knowing where they were going, if they’d be safe, or if they’d ever be home. How can we accept that that was normal?
“We can disagree about immigration policy, but none of us should accept children being terrorized, families being driven into hiding, ordinary people being subjected to unnecessary violence and cruelty. It didn’t have to be this way, and it still doesn’t. This is not over. People are still being taken, and the recent fatal shootings by ICE officers in Texas and Maine show that people are still being killed. Many in our communities are still struggling to work, get much-needed medical care, move through their own communities without fear.
Since she interacted with so many people who were released from Whipple, Ehret described conditions they shared especially in the winter months. “They would have one layer of clothing. There are no blankets or pillows because it’s not supposed to be an overnight facility, so they don’t exist in there. There were fans blowing above them, so people were freezing. There’d be one toilet in the room. Their sink, which was their only form of water, was connected to the toilet, so people wouldn’t drink it. Normally, when citizens would be held, who were constitutional observers or protesters, they wouldn’t allow them to see where the immigrants or brown people were being held. But occasionally, someone would get walked past those rooms, and they couldn’t even speak about the looks of the faces of the people in those rooms packed with 300 people. So I always tell people, however bad you think the conditions are in Whipple, especially during the surge, it was worse. The women didn’t have a bathroom in their holding cell, and were forced to be escorted by one or two male agents alone to the bathroom, so they wouldn’t go to the bathroom out of fear of being assaulted.”
(l–r) Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Melissa Melnick Gonzalez. Photo Sarah Whiting
Melissa Melnick Gonzalez, Lutheran Pastor
Melissa Melnick Gonzalez, a Lutheran pastor, shared her experiences of supporting immigrant communities and the challenges faced by detainees, including lack of access to medication and legal counsel.
As pastor of a largely immigrant congregation in Richfield, she noted that the first person she knew snatched off the street was about a year ago, deported within 11 days, even though he is married to a U.S. citizen. As a member of Unidos Minnesota and Monarca, more than a year ago they were able to fill an entire church with people who wanted to be trained to document ICE agents in action and protect neighbors.
“When federal authorities denied clergy access to those being held here, faith leaders took that fight to court — because no one in government should be able to cut a person off from spiritual care, legal counsel, their family, or the community that loves them. People detained in Minnesota in this building have been denied medications for illnesses like diabetes and heart conditions, even after pleas from attorneys, family, and friends, and this has resulted in serious medical complications.
“Often, within hours of being detained, our neighbors are put on airplanes. They are kept in shackles and taken to other states far away, where they are denied even more rights. They’re being sent to facilities in deplorable conditions and separated from their attorneys, and their families, and their faith communities. Children are separated from their parents, and sometimes even imprisoned along with them.
“Sudden transfers to other states and deportations make family visits impossible. They disrupt attorneys’ abilities to represent their clients. … A decision that comes after weeks or months of unnecessary detention is a right denied. Often, when people are released, they are put out on the street, often in another state, with no money and no clear way to return to their families in Minnesota.
“The effect of current practices is to disorient people, isolate them, and exhaust their ability to defend themselves. That is not justice, and detention must never become disappearance. We are calling for an end to unjust detentions and unnecessary transfers. We are calling on consistent access to attorneys, families, and clergy, and safe transportation home. Jesus said, ‘I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.’ Every person held inside this building on sacred land has a name, a family, a story, and a dignity that no government agency can erase.”
Jaylani Hussein of CAIR. Photo Sarah Whiting
Jaylani Hussein, CAIR
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Minnesota, noted that human beings are chased and hunted on U.S. streets, that judges who are ruling with compassion are being removed, and that more recently Somali Americans are being pulled from immigration lines “in an effort to find ways to deport them, in what is now called the Somali Rocket Docket.”
Overly packed hearing schedules “are forcing hundreds of people to be heard in one day. Many people have [had legal immigration] representation for years, and when their attorney has to represent 10 people at the same time, they can no longer represent them. Atorneys are now learning about a case in matters of days, rather than having months to prepare to represent that client. We are also seeing tactics of changing schedules and delayed mailing to ensure that people are not actually showing up to their court, in an effort to find ways to deport or get removal orders in place. We also know judges are denying constitutional observers to be inside the court to see what is happening. We call on both Democrats and Republicans to stand up for the principles that made this country what it is. Other than Native Americans and African Americans, everyone [in the U.S.] has an immigrant story — those who forgot that need to be reminded.”
Hussein concluded by reminding people that immigration is not impacting the price of gas and eggs. “Every time politicians use fear to divide us, they [are attempting] turn us away from things that impact us daily.”
“This is the moment we come together and recognize the love that we have for our neighbors,” he said, “and use that love for neighbor to start a campaign this summer to support and tell everyone across this country that it is time for a neighborly effort — for neighbors across this country to demand immigration reform.”
(l–r) COPAL’s Francisco Segovia, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and Rep. Ilhan Omar. Photo Sarah Whiting
Legislative Oversight
Rep. Ilhan Omar and Washington State U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal indicated that they asked federal officials standard questions they did not answer, such as:
- How many people does Homeland Security Investigations currently have in the state? How many ICE agents?
- Are you going to change your processes and procedures after you learned how your agents conducted themselves doing Operation Metro Surge?
- What kind of training do you have or are you providing? Have you changed the kind of training that you are providing so that we don’t continue to have tragic mistakes?
- Why are people being released into the freezing cold? What kind of changes have you made to policy so that that doesn’t happen again?
“Simple questions like that drew frustration and fury from them,” Omar said, “not understanding that we are simply doing our jobs as members of Congress to do the oversight that we are required to do on behalf of our constituents, on behalf of Congress, and on behalf of the Constitution, and so we will continue to press them. We will continue to make sure that these atrocities that were committed do not remain in the darkness; that they come to light.”
Jayapal indicated they were “met with a complete defensiveness, a refusal to answer the questions, a refusal to believe that the things that we all saw with our own eyes and have seen in reports, a refusal to accept those things were true or to take any responsibility. So I did have to push back and say ‘This is our job. We’re not saying that you have to get everything perfectly, but if you make a mistake, acknowledge it, change your practices, and do it better.’ But that requires agreeing that you did it wrong in the first place, and there is no recognition of that. That led to a very tense interchange and a reminder from me that they do not report to the White House; they report to Congress. We authorize the money. We have accountability. It is our job to do that work. It is their job to answer our questions.”
At the visit that day, Omar said, “We were not allowed to speak to any of the people that were detained. They made us sign paperwork saying we could not interact with them. I’ve never [before] been asked to sign paperwork saying that I am not able to interact with them. [In the past] we have been allowed to interact with them. … In one of the cells, we could see that it was labeled ‘Laos: 15 people’ or something like that, ‘Mexico, 12 people.’
Omar said they were told there are about 300 people detained in Minnesota in the four county jails that ICE has contracts with, and there were about 38 people being transported that day to New Orleans.
Hearings led by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Jayapal indicated that her job “as the top Democrat on the immigration subcommittee is to do oversight. Unfortunately, in the minority, we are trying to do the oversight and accountability because Republicans refuse to have hearings. I have decided that I will use my platform to do these hearings anyway.”
There have been nine hearings so far — including one in Minnesota. What she has learned is that the $210 billion in taxpayer money is used to target everyone, regardless of immigration status, including U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. “This is not about the worst of the worst. What we have been seeing is the majority of people who are being incarcerated in detention centers across the country have zero criminal convictions.”
Of the 28 percent who have been taken who do have criminal convictions, she said, most of them are minor violations. “I want to remind people again that the immigration system is not a criminal system; it is a civil system. So when Representative Omar and I walk into these detention facilities … what we are looking for is ‘Why are these people here? What policies are being changed to ensure that people are not being treated as criminals and are not being released without any basic humanity?'”
She said she was shocked when she visited the Tacoma detention facility in her home state. “I wrote the first report on human rights abuses at that detention center more than a decade and a half ago, and we are still fighting many of the things that are happening. Private, for-profit contractors own detention facilities and are operating to put profit into their own pockets. …
“I was shocked to see [today at Whipple] that everyone in here has leg restraints. That is not a common practice in holding facilities and detention centers, or even in jails. We saw one individual who was in a cell by herself with leg restraints, with ankle chains on her — and she was by herself.”
She also noted that refusing to allow members of Congress to speak to detainees in federal buildings is not only against the constitutional rights of this country, but she reminded the facility leadership that “we provide the funding, we provide the authorization, and we are accountable — not the White House, not the president. It is a congressional authority — Article One powers of the Constitution — to authorize and appropriate money. So they report to us, as members of Congress. The refusal to allow us to speak to detainees is something we have seen across the country, but only in the recent months under this administration.”
The Operation Metro Surge of a few months ago “is still happening, but in a different way,” Jayapal said. “They are still taking away the due process protections and the rights of people. They are still profiling. They are still arresting U.S. citizens. They’re still killing people in the streets … who are not even targets of the enforcement operation. They are simply in traffic stops and shot and murdered in the street.”
Jayapal said the general response — when asked if policies are being changed for more humane treatment of residents — is to point fingers. “That’s policy that’s made at the top.” Policies are dictated by Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. “They are making it so that we are not only supercharging money that goes into these removal operations, detention operations, and deportation operations, but we also have the policies other speakers talked about — the master calendar hearings, the rocket dockets.”
She also explained the kids’ docket, focused on unaccompanied children, which she has observed multiple times.
“You have three- and four-year-old children, who are unaccompanied in a courtroom, and the judge gives an 18-minute crash course to the kids about how they have the right to question witnesses, or to challenge the government attorneys who are trained in immigration law. Kids, unaccompanied children, with no representation. They’ve now stopped providing the authorized funding for legal service providers who are allowed to provide counsel to children, to minors — they’re not providing the funding that was already authorized. These are the kinds of things we’re seeing across the country.”
Jayapal said that after the U.S. House is taken back from Republican leadership, as chair of the immigration subcommittee, “We have to claw back the money that’s been given to ICE and CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] because that’s what’s supercharging so much. I intend to have accountability hearings and bring Bovino and Homan and all these people who have been part of this entire disaster and cruelty across the country. Then we’re going to pass real legislation that reforms an antiquated immigration system that does not value the contributions of immigrants to this country. In 30 years, we have not passed any reforms to our immigration system. Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are trying to get rid of all the legal pathways that people have to get here, because they don’t want any immigrants in this country.”
Next Steps in Community Engagement
In the media conference, Ehret of Haven Watch indicated that people who are impacted by the oversteps, cruelty, and lack of training of ICE agents “need more than our outrage about what happened months ago. They need us to pay attention to what is still happening now.”
“Maybe you did not act then, but we can act now. Look around your community. Notice who’s disappeared from work, from school, from your church, from the sidelines of a soccer field. Notice who’s afraid, still isolated, who’s carrying more than an individual or family should ever have to carry alone. And then do something. It might be small or quiet — maybe something no one else ever sees — but I promise you, it will mean everything to the person receiving that kindness. We may not be able to undo what happened to these families, but we are responsible for what happens next. Fear and cruelty have already taken enough from them, and we cannot stand by and let them take any more.”
In a private interview, Haven Watch volunteer Amy Champagne told us that the daily release from Whipple is less than it was — about seven people per week, compared to about 25 during Metro Surge. But the conditions inside have not improved. “The people that come out now have been in a long time, so it’s terrible.”
She noted that one detainee had a baby born the day before he was released. They could have released him days earlier, but allowed unnecessary delays to the process. “And then the extraordinary speed at which they are trying to deport people. ‘Rocket docket.’ What a disgusting frame to what they’re doing to people.”
She said much of what Haven Watch does now is provide support behind the scenes. Champagne told us:
- “Everybody needs rent and food.
- We find and pay for attorneys.
- We pay off medical debt.
- We find doctors and medical care, including in-home doulas to do postnatal care.
- Some students were detained a long time — their tuition went to collections, and then they can’t register for classes, so we pay off their debt so they can register.
- We have bought vehicles occasionally, if someone’s vehicle was impounded and then destroyed.
- A lot of in-person care of families that need support or whose partner is currently detained or already deported.
- We’ve sat with several people during procedures or surgeries, helping clean out fridges with rotten food and stock it with new food, getting house cleanings done.”
She also described the current situation of a woman “whose family is very dear to a lot of us — we’ve been trying to get her husband out. She has four kids and their youngest is seven months old and has a serious genetic disorder. He had cancer at two months old. He’s in remission now, but needed a major, life-threatening surgery that we put off an extra month as we tried to get dad out, but it couldn’t be put off anymore. That surgery was two days ago. I sat with her the whole surgery because she has no one. We have volunteers help watch her kids, but it was very hard. My own son had cancer, so being back in hospitals and doing that waiting — but I wouldn’t have anyone else do that but me, because I know what that’s like.”
Champagne added: “Before the boy who had surgery comes home, we’re having the whole house sanitized to help reduce risk of infection. Haven Watch has been special from the beginning because of our volunteers, but now we’re doing such personal, intimate work in health care. These families become more than a release or or an immigration case, but it’s hard. It’s hard to fall in love with babies, you know, and families that ultimately many of them leave, right?
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