1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

After multiple deaths in ICE custody, it’s time to condemn the agency’s increasingly chaotic and cruel actions and take steps to curb their abuses of power. In Nashville, Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus, who was detained by ICE while pregnant, suffered a stillbirth after allegedly being denied adequate medical care in ICE custody. She describes inadequate nutrition and starvation conditions, including “spaghetti served with tube-shaped ground beef and even cockroaches,” as well as mistreatment and mocking from guards. She gave birth to her stillborn baby with her feet shackled and in front of two federal agents. In California, agents were filmed beating a handcuffed and prone Narciso Barranco, the father of three U.S. Marines. Barranco was also pepper sprayed and suffered a dislocated shoulder. His son Alejandro reported that even after 24 hours in ICE custody, Narciso had not received food, water, or medical care. In Florida, Johnny Noviello, a Canadian citizen and lawful permanent resident of the U.S., died today while in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Florida detention center this week. The Canadian government is demanding answers. And across the country, people claiming to be ICE agents are refusing to show identification, provide badge numbers, or present required judicial warrants as they prowl our communities. These anonymous masked men are grabbing people off the streets, throwing them into unmarked vehicles, and taking them who-knows-where, often times as their victims’ children, parents, spouses, and friends look on. There is a way to have a robust immigration policy, and there is a process to detain and deport true “criminals.” This is not it. I never thought I would see the day when a secret police roamed the United States, scooping up citizens and lawful permanent residents alongside the undocumented. Do not enable this abuse. Hold hearings. Exercise oversight over ICE detention facilities and demand members of Congress be allowed to inspect the conditions there. Support legislation to unmask ICE. Enough is enough.