SAN ANTONIO ā More than a week after visiting 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father at a immigrant family detention facility in Dilley, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro visited a second U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility Friday in Pearsall.
Ramos and his father, who were taken into custody in Minnesota last month, have since been released from Dilley and returned to Minnesota.
Castro (D-San Antonio) shared what he saw inside the South Texas ICE Processing Center (STIPC) in Pearsall, which is located approximately 19 miles northeast of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley.
āAt Dilley, I described it as a kind of ātrailer prisonā because the folks are housed in these trailers, and your movements are monitored. Thereās cameras everywhere,ā Castro told reporters, in part. āWell, if thatās a ātrailer prison,ā STIPC is a āprison prison.ā ... It is what you imagine. You get in there, and itās steel doors, concrete walls, a lot of brown and off-white colors. Linoleum floors. Razor-wire fencing on the perimeter, especially by the yard. So, you know, it very much is a prison. These people are in prison, even though most of them have not committed any crime.ā
āA scene out of Russiaā
Castro was also asked about a video captured and posted to Facebook Thursday morning. In the video, two armed men wearing gear that reads āPOLICEā on their backs were seen searching for someone in a home.
According to reporting from KWEX, who spoke to the people who recorded the video, the men performed a traffic stop in an unmarked vehicle. The family told KWEX that the men followed them home.
The five-minute, 13-second video has been viewed on Facebook more than 2,500,000 times.
WARNING: The below video contains strong language. Viewer discretion is advised.
The congressman described what happened in the video as a āhome invasion.ā
āThere is no rational way to explain that. There is no American way to explain that. What we saw in that video was a scene out of Russia,ā Castro said, in part. āThese federal agents barging into their house with no warrant and moving people around wherever they want, refusing to leave and then roughing someone up at the house.ā
KSAT reached out to an ICE spokesperson Friday afternoon. The spokesperson said that the agency was working on sending a statement. As of publish time Friday night, ICE has not provided a statement to KSAT.
The U.S. Marshals Service told KSAT that the men in the video do not belong to them. An FBI spokesperson also confirmed to KSAT that the men did not belong to the agency or conducted an operation on its behalf, either.
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