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And we went today to visit the Dodge County Jail,
which also has a contract with ICE
to detain detainees under ICE.
And Mark Spokane and I went,
and I was particularly concerned about one
of our detainee Ramon Morales Reyes,
who as you might all recall was falsely accused
of writing a threatening letter to Donald Trump.
And I was unable to see him
because they say that I would have had to give notice
to actually be able to see him.
Although I was there under my prerogatives
and privileges as a member of Congress for oversight,
and didn't really need an appointment,
but I was unable to see him,
but he was falsely accused of writing a letter
threatening the life of the president, Donald Trump.
He is, we spoke with his attorney
and he is supposed to have a hearing on Wednesday
and a bond hearing on Wednesday.
He's absolutely no threat to the community.
He has ties here.
He has American children, wifey works here.
And hopefully he will be bonded out of this facility
on Wednesday.
I found the, at least as much as the sheriff would allow us to see,
it appeared to be clean, orderly.
The prisoners were under lockdown because of our presence,
but we, at least from what we could see,
it seemed to be in order to well run place.
We did ask them particularly about medical
and about nutrition and the ability to get exercise.
And they say that they're treated like other detainees
who are not, who are citizens,
that they're able to earn privileges
and to be able to go out
and that they're screened for communicable diseases
and that they have a decent diet.
I definitely have planned to return next Friday.
If in fact, Mr. Morales-Lele is not bonded out,
but hopefully he will be bonded out.
But I will notice them that I wanna come in
and to be able to have a conversation with those detainees
because I don't think that there are any employees
from ICE who are there to be able to ask
some of the critical questions that we had.
And so Mark, I wanna turn it over to you
to talk about some of those things that we definitely missed.
Sure, well, thank you, Gwen.
And thanks everybody for being here.
We have congressional, a prerogative to do
an unannounced visit.
In fact, I think a requirement really morally
to do an unannounced visit to these facilities
Dodge County Jail is the only ICE facility in Wisconsin.
So we went to go there.
It took about an hour to get us into the process
because I think it was unannounced
and we gave him a letter from the Appropriations Committee
from Rosa Delora who's the ranking Democratic member
that explains the law.
They got the sheriff there.
We had a conversation with him,
but there are no ICE officials on premises.
In fact, they come every three weeks is all they come.
So the sheriff to his credit, I think,
did what he could do, which is give us a tour of the facility.
But what he couldn't do is really answer
the specific questions, many of which we had about ICE.
We tried calling prior.
Once we are there, we tried calling ICE
so that we could get permission to talk to inmates
because the sheriff said he wouldn't let us
or take our staff in either.
And we tried to get ahold of ICE.
We went to the website for ICE and on the page
where it talks about the Milwaukee Field Office,
we call that number, and it's disconnected.
So we had no way to get ahold of ICE
because their number on their website is disconnected.
So we did the tour.
They do get good grades as a facility.
And I think Gwen and I would probably both say
that it met those standards.
It's a very clean facility.
It's the ICE detainees are treated.
In fact, housed equally with county detainees
that they have at the jail
and they do have a forced security classification
explained to us medical facilities.
She showed us library where the food is prepared, et cetera.
I think the real questions we have though,
we're really with ICE.
We don't even know how many detainees were there
because the sheriff didn't want to give us an answer
unless he had the exact answer.
I do feel unfortunately that he felt
that we might have been trying to do a gotcha with him
and we weren't.
He was nothing but I think respectful throughout the tour
and but he didn't want to give us information.
So we know it's around 100
but we don't know more than that
because ICE bluntly, while I'll explain in a second,
also didn't return a call when we did get the right number.
So we don't know where people are from within the ICE facility.
He did tell us that people could come from worldwide.
It's not like they're from Wisconsin.
They could come from anywhere
and ICE could bring them into this facility.
So it doesn't mean that there are folks from Wisconsin
who've been detained somehow in Wisconsin.
We couldn't get any numbers on the makeup,
the population makeup of the detainees,
the reason for anyone being detained
and we could talk to a detainee
because the sheriff did want ICE permission to do that
or advance notice,
which is what Gwen talked about for her inmate.
And then at the very end of the tour,
the sheriff gave us the number of his contact
that he had talked to while we were out waiting that hour
to do the tour and I left a message
and I've yet to get a call back
and that was more than two hours ago
and they knew that we were just in the facility.
This is the problem, right?
ICE treats us all like we don't deserve to get information.
Even though we have oversight authority to do that,
including the oversight authority to do the visit
that Gwen and I did today.
So, I guess we did get a chance to see the facility.
I do think the Dodge County facility
does meet all the requirements
that ICE puts out there for facilities
and to the sheriff's credit,
I think he gave us a tour that was respectful
and I think as inclusive as he felt he could.
But ICE, without ICE, either picking up a phone
or not disconnecting their Milwaukee number
or being there on premises,
we really couldn't get some of the answers
that we would have liked to for going into a facility.
Gwen, I'll kick it back to you.
Well, thanks Mark.
I really agree with everything that you've said.
The sheriff was accommodated as to the extent
that he felt he had agency to do it.
I was really pleased to hear that the agreements
that county sheriffs in some counties of the state
have with ICE does not include the sheriff's intervention,
say at a traffic stop or something
where they would have rest on behalf of ICE,
which is something that I needed some clarification
as to what that agreement entailed.
Just switching topics a little bit.
I was also concerned about another young woman
who lives in Milwaukee, Yisania Moano,
who of course has been told that she needs
his self-deport by tomorrow.
And literally, I spoke with her attorney today
and her attorney, Mark Christopher, said literally
while we were on the phone,
they were at that moment filing a stay.
Because in fact, they found that she has an ongoing
active application is in process
with the US Immigration Service for a T visa.
That's a visa for victims of trafficking.
She has ties to the community.
She has US-born, $20 and nine years old.
She's an exceptional asset to school district
where she works, not a threat at all to the community,
not the rapists and drug traffickers and dealers
that we have heard about.
And we just want some do for,
we want people to know that as Americans,
you have due process when you're on our soil,
whether you're, despite your citizenship status,
due process is part of what we expect
under our constitution.
And so that stay has been filed today
for an emergency stay because she should at least be able,
we should be able to wait, you know,
de-fort it or not for her to have the hearing
to which she's entitled, her TV says, you know,
she had a brother killed by gang members when she was there.
And they tried to force her and trafficker.
So we are hoping that our law, rule of law,
prevails over the zealous activities of ICE.
I think we can open it up for questions.
Matt, I don't know the best process to do this.
I was just asking people to say something
or how we should do that.
I think maybe raise hands, there's a button to raise hands.
Okay, so people can do the raise hand option
and if not, just unmute yourself and say your name
and outlet, please, and Gwen or I can try to answer.
Todd Richmond, I see your hand.
Yeah, can you guys hear me?
Yes.
Two questions, Mark and Gwen.
So were you able to visually observe any ICE detainees
or were you not certain that they were ICE detainees
or who you were looking at?
If you were allowed to look at anybody
and why did you not pursue these questions
with the Chicago ICE headquarters,
which pretty much is control of the region?
Yeah, so we did, they locked down part of the area
so we could actually walk into the facility
that people were living, they did open up an empty cell
for us to see the cell and the conditions there.
But we did see others in another part
where we were just in the central area
where we did see people and they were at their tables
or doing whatever, sleeping, et cetera.
So we did see that in their intermix.
So it's ICE detainees as long with county jail detainees.
So we couldn't tell you exactly who was who,
but we certainly couldn't talk to anyone
because that wasn't allowed.
Your second question though, Todd, was around Chicago
and that's the number we were given.
And so after the Milwaukee number was disconnected,
we couldn't get through prior.
The number of the sheriff gave us that he talked to
while he was opening it up for us to come in
because I think he didn't know the house rules
and he had to check in on that.
That's the person that did not return my call
and I'm still waiting for a return call from.
So I couldn't ask any specifics about the people
who are actually at the facility.
This is Gwen Moore.
I do think that on the staff level,
we've been able to reach the Chicago office
and we plan to do that,
to arrange a visit where we can actually speak
to Ramon, most Morales Reyes,
if he does not receive, if he's not bonded out.
And we spoke with Mr. Morales Reyes' attorney
who has connections as well.
So we plan to pursue the connections with Chicago
and make sure that they respond at least,
how do my all-in-good faith make an appointment
so that I can show up a week from today?
Great.
Nick Boor?
Thank you, I had a question for Congressman Moore.
You said that you would like to visit
and speak with the detainees or some of them.
What is it specifically, you would ask them?
Well, I certainly would want to make sure
that I had a translator there with me.
I do have that asset in my office.
I want to make sure that they're okay,
make sure that they're treated.
Well, I want to make sure that they believe
that they're getting the kind of representation
that they deserve.
The sheriff told us at least anecdotally
that they had pretty much decided
that he was not guilty of writing that letter
to Donald Trump.
But he said, look, all I do is pick people up,
transport them and detain them.
I don't have anything to do
with the adjudications of their case.
So I can't tell you what's gonna happen
or what's not gonna happen.
So I've spoken with the attorney after I made the visit
and he shared with me that they're gonna be trying
very, very hard and we're gonna weigh in
and say that to the extent that we know anything about it,
they've already determined that he could not be,
that he was a victim in fact of a crime,
which is how ICE got sights on him
and that the perpetrator of the crime is perhaps.
We don't know, perhaps responsible
for that awful correspondence
and threat against the president's life.
So I wanna make sure that his wellbeing is being dealt with.
Yeah, Nick, part of it is the arrogance
that we've seen from ICE so far this year,
the arrogance of someone actually not calling back
a member who calls on his personal cell
to the person that just got done talking to the sheriff
as we toured a facility.
Sometimes we're finding I had a constituent
who actually was down at a court in Miami
and as a sentencing as they were found their case
for asylum was found not valid,
ICE was waiting in the hallway.
We know of the family that was speaking Spanish
at Amal in Milwaukee and their Puerto Rican,
their citizens of the United States.
So there's a lot of reasons you wanna talk
to folks who are detained to make sure
that they're actually there for legitimate reason.
And I wouldn't expect the sheriff to know
that that's not his responsibility, but it is ICE's.
And if they're only showing up every three weeks
to do anything and they don't even answer
to members of Congress, that's exactly why
we have to do visits like this
or why we have to be able to talk to people who are there.
Next up I have Ava.
Yes, hi, nice to meet you.
I'm Ava, when I'm a reporter with the Milwaukee Journal,
Sano, I wrote the story about Amal Morales-Dreyas.
And I was wondering, what are your thoughts
on the Department of Homeland Security
kind of issuing this public statement
that accused Morales-Dreyas of writing that threatening letter
and that investigators kind of next day
deciding that it was not him?
Well, like I said, you know, when zeal
supplants the rule of law, we have to be concerned
because that's why we have due process.
It's why we have rules of engagement.
It's why the sheriff of Dodge County says
he doesn't stop people on the traffic stop, you know,
and then try to determine what their immigration status is.
We got rules about the way this stuff is supposed to go.
And it's frightening because it, you know,
it's Morales-Dreyas today and it's us tomorrow.
Yeah, and the real problem, Ava, I mean, also on this is,
if they admitted someone didn't do anything,
why are they still being held, right?
That's the problem, you know,
just because people had tattoos, they were sent to El Salvador,
even tattoos that had nothing to do with gangland.
I mean, this is the lawless behavior of ICE
that we're seeing all too often.
And what we merely wanted to do is get a chance
to talk to the folks who are there.
But, you know, if you announce it,
they can take away people that maybe they know
they shouldn't have put away.
That's why we have the power through Congress
to go in and do an announced visit.
The problem is since ICE doesn't actually care
about the facility very much,
they seem to have closed down the Milwaukee office
or at least the phone number for the Milwaukee office.
And now you only have Chicago office
that come in once every three weeks.
How do we get those answers?
And, you know, it's much like we're seeing before Congress,
even from the Secretary of Homeland Security.
They're not providing us answers.
And that's, you know, the real problem
with this administration right now is that, you know,
on a regular basis, whether it be the Doge Commission,
there's no phone number on the website, no email,
we tried to get contacts and we couldn't figure out
how to, we tried every congressional liaison we had,
we called the White House, they asked us call back
in 15 minutes, and then we got a call again
and finally to get a contact with in Doge.
This is not run like the federal government.
This is run like an authoritarian society.
And ICE is acting like they're the personal police
for somebody right now rather than the way they should be.
So I think what we learned today was, again,
there's still no accountability.
ICE is acting like they are somehow above the law,
above lawmakers, and the best we could do
is have a local sheriff show us the facility,
but we knew he couldn't answer more questions.
And to his credit, he said he couldn't answer more questions.
But ICE needs to at least be responsive
to members of Congress.
And what do you think his arrest,
more illustrators's arrest,
like what impact would that have on the communities
that you represent and public safety and everything?
Well, I think it really, again,
it speaks to how the United States is showing up
in the world to stray this far from the rule of law
to literally say that, you know,
because it's moving way away from the message
that they put out there that we're deporting people
who are dangerous, people who belong to criminal gangs,
people who, and in order to get their numbers up
or keep the momentum up,
when you have to snatch, you know, a much needed,
you know, school support person,
and they're desperate for these people in the classroom,
a mother of two U.S. citizens,
when she becomes your target,
that's the canary in the coal mine.
It really demonstrates that we're running way out of range
with and overshooting our goals.
And it should be a wake-up call
because I think that, you know,
even conservative communities are saying, wait a minute,
we're not looking for you to pluck productive members
of our society, working people out,
just on a traffic stop
or accidentally stumbling upon their immigration status
that we want some rules in place
that are in fact gonna make us feel safer.
And that, you know, because that goes beyond this,
it goes to workers, parents, you know,
grandmas who are here in this country and dreamers.
Thank you.
Other questions, I don't see hands up
if someone is not seeing that function on their screen,
you could also unmute your mic and just ask the question.
If not, we thank people for your time today.
Again, you know, we're still gonna pursue the questions we had.
How many folks are there?
Give us some idea of the demographics.
How many senior citizens,
are there any pregnant women,
are there any transgender inmates?
Are there any juveniles?
They've said no, and I believe that is the one answer.
We did get definitively
because they only house adult iced detainees.
But we have a lot of other questions
and we wanna know this is the only iced facility
in Wisconsin, in Dodge County.
And, you know, we felt it was our duty to do that.
Gwen?
Yeah, again, thank you for gathering.
The press, it's really important for us
to let all of these institutions know
that we, you know, we're not saying
that their mission is not important.
You know, to detain people.
But we wanna make sure that everybody who's detained
in the United States is here with due process.
They're being treated like human beings.
They're getting medical care, nutrition.
I was very concerned about whether or not people
who are just being fed all carbs,
given the high propensity of diabetes, for example,
among black and brown people.
And just wondering if they're, you know,
because their budgets from iced
don't seem to be commensurate with what it might cost
to house those prisoners.
And so we didn't get him to talk about the dearth
of any budget to really take care of people
in a way that might meet, you know,
some standard of care that we think would be equitable.
So, but we're gonna continue to work,
but we are, I am going to make sure
that I reach out to the Chicago office.
So I don't have any more questions or problems.
I will make an appointment to go there.
Well, thanks everybody, appreciate you being with us
and any other questions you can send to either of us.
And again, thanks for your availability on short notice.
Thank you.