'Just floored’: Dem lawmaker left ‘horrified’ after seeing migrant conditions in detention
'Just floored’: Dem lawmaker left ‘horrified’ after seeing migrant conditions in detention
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) visited California’s newest immigration detention facility this week and, after meeting with its detainees, was left "horrified" at what he described as a blatant “violation of human rights,” KQED reported Saturday.
“We’re treating these people like animals, not like human beings,” Khanna said, speaking with KQED. “It’s an embarrassment for the country. Whatever you think about the consequences for people who are undocumented, we should all agree that you treat people with dignity.”
Known as the California City Immigration Processing Center, the detention facility is privately owned by CoreCivic, which has controversially received millions of dollars from the Trump administration, and without having gone through the traditional bidding process that private companies are typically required to do.
The facility has the capacity to house just over 2,500 inmates, and according to Khanna, many of those inmates have been subjected to “dehumanizing conditions.
“The California City ICE detention center has human rights violations. I spoke to 47 detainees,” Khanna wrote Saturday in a social media post on X about his experience. “One man with blood in his urine had not been able to see a doctor, another complained of rocks in the food, another of not having a long sleeve shirt, shivering at night.”
For the new California facility alone, CoreCivic was awarded a $130 million two-year contract, funds that were part of the Trump administration’s $170 billion package for immigration enforcement. Given the lucrative deal, and the “dehumanizing” conditions, Khanna called for more lawmakers to tour the facility.
“I was just floored. It was really dehumanizing, and many of them were in tears,” Khanna told KQED. “Some of them had been in this country for over a decade, paying taxes, and they’re just shocked that they had been sent to this facility.”