Representative LaMonica McIver on Tuesday returned to the federal immigration detention center in Newark where she was arrested seven months ago on charges that she had assaulted U.S. agents.
The latest stop at the center, Delaney Hall, unfolded less dramatically, with Ms. McIver and two other members of Congress spending more than three hours touring the troubled, privately run detention center and emerging with stories of neglect and harsh conditions.
In a news conference after the visit, Ms. McIver, Democrat of New Jersey, urged federal immigration officials to shut down the center, where a detainee suffered a fatal medical emergency recently and where four inmates in June staged a jailbreak through a flimsy wall.
“There is not adequate food,” she said. “There is not adequate medical care. Women are not having access to OB-GYN or female products.”
The visit came less than two weeks after the death of the detainee, a 41-year-old man from Haiti. It was believed to be the first death linked to the migrant detention center.
The man, Jean Wilson Brutus, was taken to a hospital within hours of arriving at Delaney Hall. He was among four men across the United States who were detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and died in custody in recent weeks.
Ms. McIver was joined during the oversight visit by Representatives Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Yvette Clarke of New York, both Democrats. Mr. Menendez described detainees who were sick and coughing.
“I saw grown men crying,” he said. “It breaks my heart. What you see inside that facility is a betrayal of the American dream.”
The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended conditions inside immigration detention centers, saying that migrants received medical, dental and mental health screening within 12 hours of arriving.
The members of Congress “need to stop with the smears,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously.”
Ms. McIver and Mr. Menendez first visited Delaney Hall on May 9 for an unannounced oversight inspection. Delaney Hall is run by one of the country’s largest private prison companies, GEO Group, which in February was awarded a 15-year, $1 billion contract.
A video shows that Ms. McIver was involved that day in a brief but explosive clash with masked immigration agents who came out from behind Delaney Hall’s gates to arrest Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Democrat of Newark, on a trespassing charge. Ms. McIver is accused of using her forearms to “forcibly strike” an agent during the ensuing scrum. No one was injured in the confrontation, which lasted 68 seconds. She has maintained her innocence.
Democratic lawmakers had sought for months to gain access to detention centers after receiving reports of squalid conditions. After the episode at Delaney Hall, members of Congress were repeatedly denied access to ICE facilities.
A federal judge in Washington ruled last week that the Trump administration must, at least for now, allow members of Congress to make unannounced visits to immigration detention facilities. Two New York Democrats on Friday inspected federal immigration holding cells for detainees at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. One of the lawmakers, Representative Daniel Goldman, criticized the lack of showers and beds in the cells.
On Tuesday, Ms. McIver acknowledged that it had been difficult for her to return to Delaney Hall after the previous episode.
“It’s traumatic to be here,” she said. “But I had to put that aside to see what is happening inside this awful detention center.”
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