1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am writing to ask you to use every oversight, appropriations, and legislative tool available to shut down ICE detention centers that are operating as costly, cruel, and unnecessary holding facilities for people who should not be treated as threats to this country. This is not abstract. At Delaney Hall, detainees have reported overcrowding, spoiled food, lack of medical care, and pressure to self-deport. A sitting member of Congress was reportedly pepper sprayed while simply outside the facility. If federal agents will do that in public, to an elected official, what should we believe is happening to people locked inside with far less power and visibility? Many of these detainees are nonviolent people: workers, parents, students, spouses, and neighbors. Detaining them in private facilities is not public safety. It is punishment, intimidation, and a waste of taxpayer money. Please do your job. Demand records. Hold hearings. Inspect these facilities. Investigate the contractors. Cut off funding for abusive detention practices. Do not look away and do not let this continue under the language of freedom, law, or security. This is a stain on the country. Oversight is the minimum responsibility Congress owes the public.