MIRAMAR, Fla. — The American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit organization founded in 1917 by the Quakers, objected to the abuse of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.
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On Wednesday, Yareliz Mendez-Zamora, the policy coordinator for AFSC Florida, stood outside of the ICE- Enforcement and Removal Operations facility in Miramar.
“This is a public cry to our members of Congress. Use your oversight powers and continue to do the unannounced visits,” Mendez-Zamora said during a news conference. “You can protect our families.”
Mendez-Zamora stood in front of a line of people who were holding up photographs that were shared by whistleblowers who denounced alleged abuse in Miramar.
Five photos showed four portable toilets provided for more than 100 detainees, according to a report released on Monday by U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia, Bennie Thompson, and Maxwell Frost.
“Whistleblowers have shared explosive new information with Oversight Democrats about the horrific conditions inside ICE facilities in Florida,” said Garcia, a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Five other photos released in the report showed detainees sleeping on the floor in a crowded room. Some appeared to be in shackles.
“This new whistleblower report reinforces what has long been documented about immigration detention facilities—a system being used to punish people rather than uphold basic human dignity and justice,” Frost said.
In July, Garcia and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who were concerned about Homeland Security’s “efforts to systematically weaken training, safeguards, oversight, and accountability mechanisms.”
Garcia and Blumenthal, a ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent to Benjamine Huffman, the director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers.
“The killing of innocent people by DHS personnel is a horrific tragedy and a disaster,” Garcia and Blumenthal wrote about the deaths of Durán Guerrero, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, Renée Nicole Good, Keith Porter Jr., Silverio Villegas-González, and Ruben Ray Martinez, according to .
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Related report: Whistleblower report details alleged poor living conditions at multiple Florida ICE facilities, including in Miramar
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