The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office in Chantilly, Virginia, “is failing to maintain safe and lawful conditions” for immigrants held at the facility, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the National Immigration Project.
In an interview with WTOP, Sophia Gregg, a senior immigration attorney with ACLU of Virginia, said the ICE field office, which is designed to process immigrants, is instead serving as a makeshift holding facility.
“We’re hearing of reports of upwards of eight days people are being held there in overcrowded rooms with anywhere from 12 to 100 other people,” she said, adding there have been reports of no beds, no showers and inadequate toilet facilities.
The ACLU of Virginia also alleges that people being held at the Chantilly field office have been barred from having contact with their attorneys.
“There’s very limited information coming out about the conditions because ICE is prohibiting attorneys from witnessing, viewing and advocating for their clients who might be held there in unsafe and inhumane conditions,” Gregg said.
“They’re being told that you can’t talk to your attorney until you get to a long-term holding facility. They’re being told that attorneys can’t visit them there. This is patently unconstitutional,” Gregg said. “Everyone, regardless of immigration status, is afforded access to counsel.”
Gregg’s organization and the National Immigration Project have sent a letter to ICE officials demanding the conditions be rectified.
At minimum, Gregg said, the immigrants being held should be released or detained at a long-term facility “that has an entire infrastructure to address medical needs, to address attorney access and can provide them with safe conditions, presumably.”
WTOP has reached out to the ICE Field Office in Chantilly. The facility is described on ICE’s website as having the District of Columbia and Virginia as its “Area of Responsibility.”
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