Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accused the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general of having staged a photograph which the watchdog used to show allegedly poor conditions at a New Mexico migrant facility.
- The report found that the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico, which is privately run under contract for ICE, was unsafe and unsanitary and it took the unusual step of recommending the migrants there be transferred to different facilities.
- “We have determined that ICE must take immediate steps to address the critical facility staffing shortages and unsanitary living conditions that have led to health and safety risks for detainees at Torrance,” it said.
- It described an understaffed facility with unsanitary conditions including clogged toilets, non-working sinks. ICE should “immediately relocate” everyone held there, the report said.
- But the enforcement agency railed against the report, with acting chief of staff Jason Houser writing in a formal response that the agency had “serious concerns about the accuracy and integrity of this report” and whether it meets government standards.
- “In a number of instances, it appears OIG has falsified or mischaracterized evidence, and has ignored facts presented to it in order to achieve preconceived conclusions,” he wrote.
- ICE accused the OIG inspector of “very disconcerting and unprofessional behavior” including making comments 30 minutes in that there is “no way detainees should be housed here,” suggesting a predetermined outcome.
- Additionally, the agency pointed to an image of a detainee holding a cup under running water, described as “a detainee drinking water from Housing Unit Floor Mop Sink.”
- “However, the Department has raised to OIG that video surveillance evidence indicates that, to the contrary, the photo was staged by the OIG inspector and at no time, either in the staging of the photo or during the period the inspector was observing the detainee, did the detainee drink the water.”
Political | Process 
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