The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog agency uncovered “immediate risks or egregious violations” at migrant detention centers across the U.S., the Office of the Inspector General announced Thursday.
The office made unannounced visits to four facilities in California, Colorado, Georgia and New Jersey between May and November of last year. In total, the four facilities house nearly 5,000 detainees.
While the agency reported “common issues” at all four centers, the most extreme conditions were reported in Adelanto, Calif., and Essex County, N.J.
“Some of the conditions and actions we observed at the Adelanto and Essex facilities represented immediate, unaddressed risks or egregious violations … and warranted individual reporting to ICE for corrective action,” the office’s report read.
In the two facilities in Adelanto and Essex County, the agency found nooses in detainee cells, unreported security incidents, significant food safety issues and overly restrictive segregation of detainees, according to its report.
At the Adelanto center, some detainees were not offered any recreation time or showers while in segregation and others were only offered three days of recreation a week instead of every day.
Inside the Essex facility, lunch was found to be “slimy, foul-smelling and appeared to be spoiled.”
Both facilities had bathrooms in “debilitating conditions, including mold and peeling paint on walls, floors and showers and unusable toilets.”
Following the office’s report, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the watchdog agency they were implementing new policies to improve the conditions. ICE also reported that they completed “an extensive and systematic cleaning and renovation of the ICE detainee housing units.”
In a statement to the Daily News, the immigration agency said they appreciate “the efforts of the Inspector General.”
“Reviews such as this serve to help ICE improve our processes and ensure that our civil detention operations provide a safe and secure environment for both detainees and staff,” the statement read. “The safety, rights, and health of detainees in ICE’s custody are paramount.”
More than 144,000 migrants were either encountered or arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border in May, about a 32% increase from April and the highest monthly total in 13 years, Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday.
As of Monday, there were around 52,000 single adults in ICE custody — an all-time high that exceeds funding levels yet again, according to CNN, which first obtained the report of the watchdog’s findings.
