Transcripts For CSPAN2 Oversight Hearing Of ICE Detention Fa

CSPAN2 Oversight Hearing Of ICE Detention Facilities July 14, 2024

The subcommittee on oversight and management accountability will come toward her. The subcommittee is meeting today to receive testimony on oversight of i. C. E. Detention facilities and is dhs doing enough . Good afternoon. We are here to discuss the oversight immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility and by the dhs is doing enough to ensure that i. C. E. Owned that tension standards are being met. Before we started like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the challenges the subcommittee had in arranging todays hearing we are holding to panel this afternoon because i. C. E. Is declined to sit on the same panel with nakamato the contractor. The departments lack of cooperation makes it more challenging for congress to do its job. They recently stated at a meeting with dhs leaders its important in the subcommittee to bring everyone together pray that is how we can best identify challenges and find ways to solve them. This is important to me as two of i. C. E. So these the otero center and the zabala county Correctional Center detains towards upwards of 1300 migrants from my home district. I visited these facilities. I have concerns about conditions of confinement and im not alone in having these concerns. Dhs on Office Inspector general last year found that these i. C. E. Processes for oversight and compartment are insufficient to stay in compliance with i. C. E. Own standards. It might be that inspectors are set up to fail. For example a contractor which conducts 100 inspections and who va responsible for evaluating compliance of up to 42 standards composed of over 600 elements over the course of just a few days it as a result these missing somed the clear violations of detention standards like a phone not working properly. The oig observed inspectors misreporting the detainees knew how to obtain assistance from i. C. E. Officers when those detainees have indicated the exact opposite. Of additional concerns the fact that even with when these deficiencies are genocide i. C. E. Processes have not ensured ensure that they are corrected. For example i. C. E. Has monitors onsite at several detention facilities to monitor compliance with detention f standards. However the monitors told the oig that when they identified violations they have no means of enforcing corrective action. Instead of pressuring facilities to correct deficiencies from assuring financial penalties for noncompliance in some cases the i. C. E. Grants waiver so facilities dont have to abide by the standards. For example at the oig report from october 2015 to june 2018 i. C. E. Only issued to financial penalties and granted 65 flavors. 63 of which have those waivers had no end date. One of these waivers and in the otero maida street permitted locus individuals with no criminal history to come and go with individuals with more serious criminall records. The standards that typically keeps these detainees separate these detainees separate is an important one that directly impacts the safety of people in detention. Finally i have concerns inspections by i. C. E. Contractors announced far in advance giving a chance for a facility to clean up just before inspection but i i understand te oig made several recommendations to i. C. E. Io to correct these issues and i look forward to hear what steps ice i. C. E. Is taking up whether they are leaving to compliance standards. Also look forward to hearing about the oversight the oig conducts. The oigs oversight work in this space is critical and shining a light on the conditions of confinement. Recent reports have identified serious violations of ice issa standards in an appropriate safetytion on detainee however the scope of oigs inspections is limited by its lack of subject Matter Experts like medical doctors to evaluate the quality of medical care. Im encouraged by the fact that the oig is developing a plan to contract with such experts that can engage in this oversight work and i hope to hear this plan is being put into action. Whwant toon thank the witnesses who are here today and i look forward to your testimony. Nhe chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the subcommittee the gentleman from texas mr. Crenshaw for an. Pening statement thank you chairwoman tore small and thank thank you to all of her thank you to oliver when is on both panels for being here today. And please were holding this hearing regarding the oversight of i. C. E. Detention facilities. We were able to Work Together to resolve some problems coordinating witnesses and panels to have heavy Key Stakeholders necessary for the productive hearing this issue deserves. It should be noted it is b longstanding practice not to have the agency and the contractors for that agency on the same panel which is why we ended up having two different panels. Im also hopeful the office of civil rights and Civil Liberties will still provide testimony prepared for this hearing even though they were disinvited hope inthis week that i the future the agency over which we are conducting oversight in this case i. C. E. Would be the first to be invited to testify. This is an important issue to them in. The share of the majoritys concern regarding the necessity of enforcing the standards for safety andnd security of i. C. E. Detainees. The health and wellbeing of those obtained in the United States is not a partisan issue. Ive been very public in my praise for theen department of Homeland Security and the individuals who work each day to keep our country safer the men or women of u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are somewhat toughest jobs in the department. I. C. E. Is tasked with enforcing laws and removing individuals who pose a threat to National Security Public Safety or exploit the immigration system. The job is made more difficult when they are publicly and unfairly vilified by public figures. False narrative spread about i. C. E. Are utterly n n reprehene officials primarily targeted for removal by i. C. E. Include convicted criminals gang members repeat violators and those ordered to be removed by an immigration judge. As the flow of immigrants increases the job of i. C. E. Comes were difficult to admit they must devote the resources to the biggest threats over those resources are stretched then. The safe and secure detention of individuals prior to removal from the country is one of the most important duties that i. C. E. Devotes resources too. Although detention is primarily done through contractors the Agency Responsible for these individuals i. C. E. Must ensure that proper care is provided. I. C. E. Must use its Oversight Authority as well as contracting authorities to ensure detention standards are met. I said hires private contractors to do inspections annually. Additionally i. C. E. Has individuals in the number of facilities passed with onsite review of thed daily operations. Although seems like conducting vigorous oversight unfortunately however it seems its frequently the case of Government Agencies with the lack of communication coordination within i. C. E. Raids find her standing i. C. E. Is agreed recommendations of the Inspector Generals office and is working to address these issues. I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today on how we can ensure a i. C. E. Detention standards are met and the future and i yield back the balance of my time. In other members of the committees committees are minded under Committee Rules Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. I welcome our first panel of witnesses and thankha them for joining us today. Our first i witness is jenni eakamato president and owner of nakamato inc. Ms. Nakamatos provided ministries support to the federal government in the 1990. Company contracts with i. C. E. To conduct our second witness ms. Katherine hawkins is a Senior Adviser for the constitution project at the project for government oversight her work focuses on National Security immigration and human rights. Prior to her work she served as the National Security fellow for open government. Without objection the witnesses statements will bel answered in the record and i ask each witness to summarize her statement for fiveac minutes beginning with ms. Nakamato. Thank you for your invitation to appear before this committee. I want to first apologize for what appeared to be our resistance to come to this hearing to discuss the details of our work with i. C. E. Radar contract has a clause within the contract for a regulation to forbid disclosure these details and we were hesitant to get involved at thehe risk of our contract. The Nakamato Group is a woman on minorityowned Small Business headquartered in Frederick County maryland. My great grandparents immigrated to the United States fromm japa. My maternal grandparents were forward born in california making them United States citizens. After pearl harbor the president ial order was issued to incarcerate all japanese regardless of their citizenship. My maternal Family Living in california catcher like which all other property including any businesses that they had. They were given one trashbag to fill a personal items to take with them to leave Everything Else behind. Her family spread out to various internment camps across the country. My maternal grandparents were incarcerated in a japanese internment camp inth arizona. They were there long enough to meet fall in love get married have a baby, my mother and become pregnant again with my aunt. Since they had to start over theyed were offered employment t a Food Processing factory before they were released and chose to move to a small town in southern new jersey were ultimately i was born. My father was born and raised in hawaii. My five grandfather returned to japan soon after his born. My father was youngest of large broken home and raised by several of his older brothers. My father served for more than 20 years inve the 90s dates army and served two tours during vietnam and served on one of the first all japanese American Green beret units. Upon his retirement he be relocated to frederick where i grew up because my parents did not have a m lot of money i word during high school and have been working since i was 15 years old surely after high school i was able to obtain the secretarial job with the government at the department of health and Human Services but i worked there for over six years before leaving to work for three successful minorityowned contracting firms. I decided to take a chance and start my own company. I started this company in 2003 that is the same same era lost my late husband to suicide. I still volunteer for his paternal order of police and have volunteered for them for over 20 years serving as the executive assistant to the executive board. The Nakamato Group of certified as a Small Business Administration Program in 2004. I successfully graduated certification in 2017. The first contract awarded to my company was in 2004 to maintain a hotline entitled insure kids now which is a hotline that provides free or lowcost health care to kids through Health Insurance programs which in the United States we still maintain a contract after 15y, years and it now includes another hotline entitled 311 baby which helps expectant and new mothers providing information. For the last 15 years we have obtained logistics contracts for the food and Drug Administration and the department of health and Human Servicess. From 2006 to 2007 with a contract with the foodh and Drug Administration to help them hire hispanics to increase diversity within their workforce. We continue to provide Logistic Support for Advisory Committees. Our most current and longstanding logistics contract has been with the rental logistics for the Advisory Committee for health and Human Services and we provided logistics for several other policy meetings regarding telehealth and Rural America from 2010 to 2013. In 2005 obtained a contract with the now dissolved office of the federal detention trustee which was the department under the department of justice. We have won a place with a blanket Purchase Agreement to provide detention Expert Support Service tort the office of the federal detention trustee producing performance based standards we provided expert Specialized Services for consultation by conducting a silly reviews of noncontract jaylen deterrents in jails which housed Immigration Enforcement detainees. In 2007 we were asked to attend the meeting at i. C. E. Headquarters where we are asked to perform onsite honor during services and provide monthly Technical Assistance that included fulltime monitors for 40 of the largest i. C. E. Detention facilities and monthly quarterly biannual reviews of b other small i. C. E. Detention facilities. The goal was to ensure the facilities were in compliance with standards. I. C. E. Piggybacked on that existing contract we had at the time of the department of justice and we did this type of work or are them from 2007 to 2010. Ms. Nakamato your time is up if you want to include a few seconds of concluding remarks. Or the rest can be entered into the record. Okay. Chairwoman for a small Ranking Member crunch on members of the subcommittee thank you for the o opportunity to testify today. I miss senior legal analyst for the constitution project on government oversight. Its a nonpartisan watchdog investigates government abuses of power. My colleagues and i have done a series of investigations in i. C. E. Detention. We found evidence with inadequate medical care and Adequate Mental Health care and overuse of solitary confinement. These are chronic problems that they have grown worse since i. C. E. Is detained more and more people. I. C. E. Detentionon centers are subject to various forms off oversight the dhs. Their annual inspections by the Nakamato Group onsite mungin expections by different offices within i. C. E. In the dh Inspector General and Civil Liberties. This sounds like a lot of inspections. The system is failing to ensure compliance with detention standards. The nakamato inspections occur most often are the only ones that contribute to the contract they often fail to uncover serious violations. Other inspections are more thorough and they often remain hidden from congress and the public and i. C. E. Fails to make changes they recommended and this is a result inhumane conditions can exist for years. In somehe cases the violation gs to the zoo level of deliberate to illustrate the problems ive described my findings on three of the largest detention facilities. In september of 20 teen the Inspector General reported on an inspection of the Adelanto Detention Center and talk to you. They found sheets made into nooses and 15 south inadequate medical care and overuse of solitary confinement. The Nakamato Group conducted its previously announced inspection of adelanto. They found not only adelanto was in compliance with i. C. E. Detention standards but accuse the Inspector General of riding erroneous and inflammatory reports. They dismissed the nooses of the House Keeping detainees. The recently uncovered a third investigation of adelanto by the office of civil rights and Civil Liberties rcr cl. See our cl visited adelanto in 2015 in november of 2017. In 2015 the sheriff 2 warned i. C. E. That the leadership was not competent. In 2017 they found no evidence that corrections were made to address this issue priebus led to in their words and adequate detainee medical care that resulted a medical injury including deformities in detainee deaths. They found mentally ill detainees are being placed in solitary confinement instead of being treated sometimes for shockingly long times. Sometimes it has fatal consequences. As the district who committed suicide at the stuart Detention Center may 2017 and july 2018. Instead of receiving psychiatric treatment both were placed in solitary confinement for weeks. Upon themselves and their isolation cells. Despite the to death nakamato inspectors found stewart was in compliance with all 39 of i. C. E. Detention standards and 2017 and 2018. Inadequate medical care led to another death of the Detention Center in aurora california that colorado. For two weeks of symptoms grew worse with me

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