SAN ANTONIO – 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.
“At Dilley, I described it as a kind of ‘trailer prison’ because the folks are housed in these trailers, and your movements are monitored. There’s cameras everywhere,” Castro told reporters, in part. “Well, if that’s a ‘trailer prison,’ STIPC is a ‘prison prison.’ ... It is what you imagine. You get in there, and it’s 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.”
‘A scene out of Russia’
Castro was also asked about a video captured and posted to Facebook Thursday morning. In the video, two armed men wearing gear that reads “POLICE” 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 “home invasion.”
“There 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,” Castro said, in part. “These 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.”
The statement from DHS regarding this incident can be read below:
On February 5, ICE officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest Gonzalo Mejia Ortega, 34, a violent criminal illegal alien from Mexico with three previous arrests for domestic assault. Officers had a warrant for his arrest. This criminal illegal chose to commit a felony by illegally re-entering the U.S. after he was previously removed.
When ICE Officers attempted to conduct a vehicle stop of Mejia Ortega, he resisted arrest and fled from law enforcement and ran inside his home. In carrying out their lawful duties, ICE officers pursued this violent criminal into his home. Mejia Ortega fled out a window and is still at large. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to contact the ICE Tip Line at 1-866-347-2423.
While exiting the house, an individual assaulted an ICE officer. ICE officers attempted to arrest this individual for assault—a felony and federal crime—but agitators within the house interfered with the lawful arrest. For their safety, officers left the house without completing the arrest.
ICE is consulting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pursue federal criminal charges.
Homeland Security spokesperson
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