Conditions at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chantilly have improved in recent weeks, four of Northern Virginia’s federal legislators say.
Sen. Mark Warner, as well as Reps. James Walkinshaw, Suhas Subramanyam and Don Beyer, visited the facility last Friday (Sept. 26) “after a month of attempting to gain access.”
“We are relieved to report that as of today, conditions appear to have improved from the horrifying reports we received just weeks ago,” the quartet said in a statement following their visit.
The facility, located at 14797 Murdock Street, traditionally operates as a field office, but dozens of immigrant rights advocacy groups said in August that it had become a “makeshift” detention facility since the Trump administration ramped up enforcement and removal efforts during its takeover of D.C.
Poder VA, which operates a hotline for reporting ICE activity, first drew attention to the Chantilly office, alleging that as many as 100 detainees were being housed for up to five days. That exceeds both ICE’s standard holding limit of 12 hours and an extension to 72 hours under a nationwide waiver issued by the agency in June.
“[T]hey are deprived of access to food and water, do not have adequate sleeping quarters and are sleeping on the floor with makeshift blankets, are denied medical care, and are subjected to unsanitary and degrading conditions,” the Free Them All VA Coalition said in an letter to the D.C. region’s Congressional leaders.
The four Congressional leaders directly attributed concerns about the facility to the Trump administration’s policies, noting that prioritizing detention and removal has negatively impacted the ability for detainees to be treated humanely.
“The pervasive overcrowding and unsafe conditions that occurred are the direct consequences of the Trump administration’s mass detention policies and ICE has a legal obligation to ensure that anyone in its custody is treated safely, humanely, and in accordance with federal law,” the elected officials said.
The quartet also noted that a recently approved increase in funding that will bring ICE’s operating budget up to more than $170 billion by fiscal year 2029 means the administration has no excuse for allowing poor conditions.
“With its budget now tripled in size to unprecedented levels, ICE has no excuse for failing to plan ahead: it must put in place a clear policy to ensure that when a field office reaches capacity, the burden is relieved immediately and not allowed to spiral into a humanitarian crisis,” the elected officials said.
“We will continue pressing for accountability and transparency to make certain those obligations are met, not temporarily or on the administration’s delayed timeline, but every single day.”
In a statement shared with FFXnow on Oct. 15, organizers with the collaborative LaColectiVA and the Free Them All VA coalition expressed skepticism of the elected officials’ report:
Last week, Virginia politicians visited the Chantilly Holding Room, an illegal detention center, after weeks of being deprived access to inspect the facility. The politicians’ joint response is shocking, because it ignores the realities and cruelties of immigration enforcement and detention.
Anyone taking the administration at its word is naive to how ICE is known to operate, let alone how the agency is operating under this administration. ICE is known to deceive inspectors of the true conditions in its facilities. When inspections do occur, ICE has a documented history of deceiving visitors by “window dressing” just before the inspection takes place in order to give a false impression of what the detention center really looks like or how it really operates. The conditions reported just weeks ago reveal the Chantilly office is unfit for human life and poses a grave danger to anyone inside, and should not be used for any detention, full stop. This administration has proven itself incapable of acting honestly or in compliance with the law. We need our leaders to hold them accountable, not buy into their lies.
