The Massachusetts congressional delegation is demanding answers from federal immigration officials about conditions at an administrative office in Burlington where immigrants have been detained, often for days at a time, since at least early May.
In a letter dated Wednesday to Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Patricia Hyde, acting ICE Boston field office director at the Burlington facility, the lawmakers said they’re “alarmed by reports” of how ICE is using the building. The letter — spearheaded by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and also signed by the state’s nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives — includes a long list of questions and a request for a congressional briefing.
The Burlington office “was never zoned to detain individuals overnight,” they wrote in the letter. “ICE policy provides that, absent ‘exceptional circumstances,’ no one should be detained in a field office holding facility for more than 12 hours.”
As WBUR has previously reported, amid a national surge in immigration arrests, people have been kept there for much longer. Detainees have reported crowding, a lack of sanitary products for women and no access to fresh air.
“The reports coming out of ICE field offices — and the fact that ICE is trying to keep horrific conditions hidden from the American people — are deeply concerning,” Warren said in a statement. “We’re sounding the alarm. ICE’s abuse of power has to end.”
The ICE field office in Burlington is a squat, two-story building that serves as the agency’s New England regional headquarters. Located in an office park near the Burlington Mall, it’s one of 25 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation facilities in the country. It’s primarily used for administrative work — a place where agents do paperwork and immigrants in active removal proceedings check in. Occasionally, someone getting deported may be held there for a few hours before getting transferred elsewhere.
As such, it lacks the facilities for longer-term detention. There are no beds, and people who have been detained there, including 18-year-old Milford high schooler Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, have said they slept on a concrete floor with a mylar blanket.
Gomes Da Silva also said that during his six-day detention there, he had no access to a shower, wasn’t given enough food and was housed with a few dozen other men, many of whom were much older than him.
Though an ICE spokesperson accused him of “peddling” blatant lies regarding his treatment while in custody in Burlington, Gomes Da Silva’s account of his detention is similar to that described by immigration attorneys with other clients held in Burlington, as well as by family members of those detained. Several attorneys have filed sworn affidavits attesting to the “inhumane and cruel conditions of detention” inside the field office.
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson has said the Burlington office is “equipped to facilitate a short-term stay when necessary” and that people are “given ample food, regular access to phones, showers and legal representation as well as medical care when needed.”
Following Gomes Da Silva’s release on June 5, Congressmen Jake Auchincloss and Seth Moulton paid a visit to the Burlington facility. They were given a brief tour, including of the back area where they reported seeing “a handful” of rooms, each with a “half dozen or more people in them.” The lawmakers said they did not go into the rooms, but they observed ICE agents handing out food to detainees.
“There were no windows, it’s very difficult to even understand the time of day,” Moulton told reporters after the tour. “It’s not conditions that anyone would want to live in for more than a few hours.”
Immigration advocates and lawyers have voiced similar concerns about conditions inside other ICE field offices around the country, including one in New York City. Earlier this month, nine New York lawmakers showed up to the field office — unannounced, as is their right under federal law — but were denied access.
New guidance from ICE released earlier this month says members of Congress must now provide 72-hour notice before touring a facility, and asserts that the agency has the right to deny any requests or postpone planned visits.
“In effect, ICE appears to be violating its own detention standards, denying reports of violations, and then preventing the American public’s representatives from witnessing those violations,” the Massachusetts lawmakers wrote in their letter.
To better understand what’s going on behind closed doors, the delegation has asked for answers to 15 detailed questions. They want to know how many people are being held there, how long they’ve been held and whether any are younger than 18, are pregnant or disabled. They requested specifics about the building’s maximum occupancy, on-site medical services and the number of showers and sinks. And they asked ICE whether the facility complies with federal standards.
“If not, please explain steps ICE is currently taking to bring the facility into compliance with the agency’s detention standards,” they wrote. “If so, please explain ICE’s basis for reaching that conclusion, in light of the reports mentioned above, and more.”
Officials in the town of Burlington also are making inquiries into whether holding people in the office building is permitted under local zoning rules. In a post this week, the town says its building department has issued a formal demand to inspect the property.
Since President Trump took office, ICE has ramped up immigration enforcement activities around the country as it aims to arrest 3,000 people per day. During the month of May, agents said they arrested nearly 1,500 people in Massachusetts alone.
According to CBS News, the federal government is currently holding 59,000 immigrant detainees in facilities across the nation.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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