Investigate ICE Detention Centers and Redirect Funding to Ensure Detainee Safety

I am writing to urge you to launch an independent investigation into conditions at ICE detention facilities and redirect agency funding to ensure adequate medical staffing and safe conditions for detainees, particularly children. Recent reporting reveals alarming conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. Since September, at least 11 emergency calls have been placed for children in medical distress, with kids burning with fever and struggling to breathe. Despite housing children, this facility lacks adequate medical staffing. These are not isolated incidents but a pattern of medical neglect that puts vulnerable lives at risk. The consequences of these inadequate conditions are deadly. Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a blind Rohingya refugee who should have been safely home with his family in Buffalo, was instead killed by failures within the immigration and criminal justice system. Additionally, an ICE pursuit in Newark recently ended in a multi-car crash involving three children, raising further questions about agency practices that endanger both detainees and the public. I am asking you to take three specific actions. First, initiate an independent investigation into detention center conditions, focusing on medical staffing levels and the causes of respiratory distress and fever outbreaks among detainees. Second, redirect ICE funding to ensure every facility housing detainees has adequate medical personnel on site at all times. Third, require transparent public reporting of all medical emergencies and deaths in ICE custody. ICE has sufficient funding to operate these facilities. The question is whether that money is being used to protect human life and dignity or being misallocated while children suffer. Your constituents expect detention facilities to meet basic humanitarian standards. When children are struggling to breathe and burning with fever without adequate medical care, the system has failed catastrophically. I urge you to act immediately to prevent further harm and hold ICE accountable for the safety of those in its custody.