Protestors filled the sidewalks around the Route 50 and Stonecroft Blvd intersection in Chantilly yesterday (Wednesday), rallying against a nearby ICE facility with reportedly inhumane conditions.
Stories emerged in recent weeks of dire conditions inside ICE’s Washington Field Office, where immigrants picked up during the Trump administration’s takeover of D.C. are being detained.
At the rally, Daniela from Legal Aid Justice Center shared a recording from a person they said had been detained in the Chantilly facility for four days.
“In Chantilly, I was there for four days, but there were people there closer to a month; four weeks,” the person said. “They only gave us burritos for food. Only burritos.”
The person in the recording said 100 to 150 people were jammed into each cell block and didn’t have access to medication or basic supplies like toothbrushes.
“We are not animals; we are human beings,” the person said. “I believe that every person has a right. We have equality, we have the right to endure. But in that case, there was not that kind of equality.”
Amy Ciccarone, immigration co-chair for Indivisible NOVA West, said the Chantilly field office, typically a place for processing and other administrative duties, has become a hub for immigration arrests.
“It is not a place set up for people to stay overnight,” Ciccarone said. “The conditions at the ICE field office here in Chantilly are horrendous. It’s not a place that’s supposed to operate as a detention center.”
Ciccarone said local congressional representatives and other officials should demand access to the facility. While most of the blame was pointed squarely at the Trump administration, protestors also expressed frustration with Democratic leadership and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for collaborating.
Bowser signed an order on Tuesday (Sept. 2) establishing an operations center to coordinate the District’s interactions with federal agencies. The mayor characterized the move as setting up a “framework” for winding down President Donald Trump’s “emergency” declaration, but residents, legal observers and city council members have criticized it as indefinitely extending ICE and federal law enforcement’s increased presence, which has put immigrant communities in particular on edge.
“It’s not a surprise to see D.C.’s mayor backing down and a lack of leadership from Democratic politicians in this area,” said Danny Cendejas with La ColectiVA and the Free Them All VA Coalition.
Cendejas and others at the protest called for ICE to be dismantled.
“They are about violence,” Cendejas said. “They are about the destruction of families and communities. They are a deadly agency. If any other agency were killing so many people, I sure as hell doubt government agencies would fund them like this. If teachers were walking around killing students? If Doctors were killing patients? But some of our people are disposable to the system because of racism, xenophobia, white supremacy, and it’s run by these politicians who fund private prison companies that then profit off of our misery.”
