Chairs Thompson & Barragán Urge DHS to Terminate Contract with Torrance County Detention Facility
(WASHINGTON) – Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, & Operations, sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a management alert from the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) operated by CoreCivic in New Mexico. In the letter, Chairman Thompson and Chairwoman Barragán urge the Department to swiftly remove all individuals detained at TCDF and terminate ICE’s contract with the facility.
Letter excerpts:
We write to express grave concern over the conditions in the Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) operated by CoreCivic in Estancia, New Mexico, as outlined by a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) Management Alert. The DHS OIG inspected TCDF and found that the facility is critically understaffed with unsanitary conditions, which has created health and safety risks for detainees. To protect those in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, we urge you to swiftly remove all individuals detained at TCDF and terminate ICE’s contract with the facility.
We are disturbed that in its response to the OIG’s findings, ICE is defending CoreCivic’s repeated failures to resolve ongoing issues to preserve detention space rather than following the OIG’s recommendation to remove detainees from TCDF.
DHS announced today that ICE will discontinue or curtail use of four smaller facilities that have received longstanding complaints. However, Torrance County Detention Facility was not included in this list.
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