Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez rejected seeing inhumane conditions at a migrant detention center after touring the facilities, claiming there is "no cause for an alarm" there.
Gimenez visited the Krome detention center in Miami on Monday, saying afterwards that the only recommendation he would give is expanded recreation time. "One of the recommendations that I'm going to make is to allow for more recreation time, because actually that's one way you burn off energy," he said.
The facility made headlines recently after reports of unhygienic conditions and overcrowding that reached a level where detainees were sleeping on the floors. Earlier this month, a group of Cuban detainees staged a protest in the facility's recreational yard to oppose deportation to third countries including Libya, El Salvador and South Sudan. Concretely, dozens of detainees formed a large "SOS" sign, which was captured from the air by local media outlets.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data released May 12, about 800 people were detained at the facility. However, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who toured Krome on May 29, said the number was closer to 1,100, with tents built to control the overflow.
"They are very small intake rooms with 25-35 men, all cramped in," the lawmaker claimed. "They are eating and sleeping. Defecating and urinating in, there's a toilet in there, but it is front of all these other people."
Gimenez, in turn, said even though the center "is not the Ritz," there is "nothing in there that would be cause for an alarm." "It is not on my bucket list to be in there," Gimenez added, but said "that does not mean it is not adequate and it is not something that any American would be ashamed of."
Gimenez also recently rejected seeing harsh conditions in another Miami detention center after migrants held there claimed so earlier this month.
"There's nothing going on in there that would make me as an American not proud to be an American, and ashamed of what's going on there," Gimenez told press after touring the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.
The lawmaker went on to say he did not see any "deplorable" conditions. He did confirm the April incident that catalyzed some of the claims, which were reported by the Miami Herald and catalyzed a conversation about the conditions in the facility.
The report in question quoted six detainees who told the outlet that officers launched crowd-control grenades and shot what looked either rubber bullets into a room with about 50 people.
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