A Democratic congresswoman urged Americans to hit the streets, flood Republican lawmakers with “threatening” calls, and cause an “uprising” over the conditions at a Florida ICE detention center — all while clad in a full pink suit and flower-adorned cowboy hat.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) toured Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Krome Detention Center in Miami on Thursday before holding a news conference on Instagram Live to tell reporters that federal authorities were planning to erect a “tent city” to expand the number of detainees at the facility.
Wilson said she blamed the Laken Riley Act, the bill signed by President Trump in January that required the detention of illegal immigrants charged with certain crimes — including burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting — for the crackdown.
“The Laken Riley Act has caused an increase in detainees, and these are people who have… you could have been here forever,” Wilson said.
She said illegal immigrants can be arrested for “walking across the street, jaywalking, or shoplifting, they will detain you and bring you right here.”
“So I’ve been giving out the phone numbers to the House of Representatives and to the Senate,” she said. “It’s one number that number you call and you threaten it, and you say, ‘This is wrong. This is not America. This is not what we stand for. We need a change.’ You have to do that. It’s going to take the people. We’ve done it,” Wilson said.
“We need the people. We needed an uprising where people are taking to the streets and the phones, and writing letters. That’s what we need,” she told reporters.
During her visit, the Dem lawmaker and fervent opponent of Trump said she expected to see criminals “tattooed with gold teeth.”
Instead, Wilson, 82, said she was met with “hardworking men” and not “dangerous people.”
Wilson also alleged federal immigration authorities pulled a cover-up to hide the true conditions of the facility.
“I am positive that they took people out today, so I wouldn’t see [the overcrowding],” Wilson said, without providing evidence.
“It was like somebody went in there yesterday and put on a whole new coat of fresh paint… you could even smell the paint,” she added.
She described the alleged “tent city” being built at the detention center and slammed authorities for detaining those without criminal records.
“They [prison officials] did admit they are building a tent city,” she said. “It’s actually like a plexiglass or Styrofoam with big pipes of air conditioning coming in,” Wilson added.
“Most of the people are not criminals,” she said.
The Laken Riley is named after nursing student Laken Riley, who was attacked, viciously strangled and beaten to death in February 2024 by illegal immigrant José Antonio Ibarra after he waylaid her as she jogged across the University of Georgia campus.
The measure also enables state attorneys general to file lawsuits against the Homeland Security secretary if the government fails to enforce immigration laws, particularly in instances where “the state or its residents experience harm, including financial harm in excess of $100.”
A violent Tren de Aragua gangbanger, Ibarra had entered the country via the southern border into El Paso, Texas on Sept. 8, 2022, but was released due to insufficient detention space, according to immigration officials.
Prior to Riley’s death, Ibarra had multiple run-ins with the law. In December 2023, an arrest warrant was issued for him over his failure to make a court appearance for a shoplifting case in Georgia.
Previously, he had also been arrested for child endangerment after blitzing through the streets of Queens on a moped with his wife’s child holding on for dear life, authorities told The Post.
ICE later disclosed that Ibarra was not held after his arrest in the Empire State because he was released before officials could get a detainer.
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