Secretary Mullen, have you ever had a visit to Delaney Hall for oversight visit? No, I have not.
Detainees and their families have told me that the food served inside Delaney Hall is green and rotten, even containing live worms.
They report that shower walls are covered in black mold and that toilets are backed up in what can only be described as an overflowing sewage.
This administration has chosen to weaponize DHS to cover up the abuses.
You talk about racist racism a lot in today’s hearing.
You know what’s racist is the fact that every detainee in Delaney Hall is a person of color.
The cruelty runs to the top of DHS weaponizing the immigration system for your president in this administration racist grievances.
Now recognize the gentle lady from New Jersey, Miss McGyver, for five minutes of questions.
Thank you.
Uh Mr.
Chairman.
Um, I ask unanimous consent to enter the SOS letter signed by 300 plus detainees of Delaney Hall into record without objection.
Thank you so much.
Secretary Mullen, have you ever had a visit to Delaney Hall for oversight visit? No, I have not.
Thank you.
The Department of Homeland Security was meant to safeguard the people, our homeland, and our values with the legal obligation to observe the basic human right and due process for everyone on US soil.
We have seen former administration support transparency and cooperate with congressional oversight.
Unfortunately, Trump and his administration are doing the exact opposite.
This is a humanitarian crisis happening in my district at Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Norc, New Jersey.
We’re talking about Nor, New Jersey, Delaney Hall Detention Center.
Recently, more than 300 detainees sent an SOS letter about the torturous conditions they face inside.
After that letter, detainees went on a hunger strike to protest spoil rotten food, lack of medical care, and violent and unsanitary conditions.
I have spoken to these people.
I have seen these conditions with my own eyes.
Detainees and their families have told me that the food served inside Delaney Hall is green and rotten, even containing live worms.
They report that shower walls are covered in black mold and that toilets are backed up in what can only be described as an overflowing sewage.
They are not given adequate cleaning supplies and they are told that they must use paper towels and their own toothbrushes sometimes to try to get the facility to a safe level of cleanliness.
Detainees and their families also share horrific accounts of being dumped into solitary confinement cells after surgery for medical observation and remaining there for months without any actual medical care.
They are three there are three detainees currently right now at Delaney trapped in this medical isolation right now.
Sometimes when I visit no doctor is present.
No doctor.
When the doctor has been there they have known almost nothing about their patients care.
There were pregnant women in there without getting any OB/GYN care that the doctor didn’t even know where they go for outside services.
Tragically, two pregnant women miscarried after their emergencies were dismissed as psychological frenzies by GGO staff.
Additionally, when they tell members of Congress about these conditions, when they participate in hunger strikes, when they try to seek help, they face retaliation in this facility and from ICE.
Communication access is revoked, visitations are cut, and even worse, things happen to them.
Instead of addressing these inhumane conditions and attempting to solve them, this administration has chosen to weaponize DHS to cover up the abuses.
Thankfully, Secretary Mullen, you are here today to answer some of these questions that my colleagues have.
The Department of Homeland Security issued official statements calling the hunger strike a complete fabrication while quietly while quietly transferring 15 women from Delaney Hall to a facil facility in Louisiana soon after the hunger strike began along with other detainees.
They were transferred.
One of those women transferred is a victim of medical neglect who miscarried.
I will continue to say his name as well.
41-year-old Jean Wilson Brutus.
He died within 24 hours of entering an ICE custody at Delaney Hall.
And ICE passed his death off as natural causes.
And even as a family member and even as family members and civil rights groups practiced their constitutional right to peacefully protest, federal agents tased, pepper-sprayed, and put them under arrest.
Inside Delaney, officers beat detainees in unit 2A and 2B, pepper- sprayed them, and proceeded to cut off their communication with family and their attorneys by placing them under lockdown.
Secretary Mullen, unit 2A and 2B.
Hopefully, you’re taking notes.
This department has doubled down on partisan showmanship as well, even threatening to stop the processing of international flights in cities like mine in Newark because they don’t like that Americans are protesting inhumane conditions and demanding oversight and accountability.
This is not a matter of politics.
The American people are concerned by what they hear and and are unwilling to give their hard own tax dollars to what is happening.
Lastly, Secretary Mullen, you talk about racist racism a lot in today’s hearing.
You know what’s racist is the fact that every detainee in Delaney Hall is a person of color.
The cruelty runs to the top of DHS weaponizing the immigration system for your president in this administration racist grievances.
With that, I yield back.
Gentle lady yields back.
I now recognize the gentleman from New York, Mr.
Loa, for five minutes of questions.
Thank you, Chairman.
Uh, thank you, Mr.
Secretary, for being here and for your leadership and all your hard work to help secure our awesome homeland.
Uh, I know, Mr.
Secretary, that your short tenure as Homeland Security Secretary, you fought hard to ensure our people have the resources they need to do their jobs in light of the DHS shutdowns, you’ve properly advocated for our people, that they receive compensation for their hard work so they can keep our homeland safe.
And I want to thank you for your efforts there.
Uh, along those lines, Mr.
Secretary, I want to talk about the housing allowances afforded to our Coast Guard personnel.
Uh, my Long Island district is home to several Coast Guard equities, including Sector Field Office Meritous, Marine Safety Unicorum, AIDS Navigation Team Maritches, Station Eaton’s Neck, Station Shinik, and Station MTOK.
Uh, several of those bases, Mr.
Secretary, and the Hamptons.
This isn’t a trick question, Mr.
Secretary, but what comes to your mind when you think of the Hamptons? Hampton’s.
Yes, sir.
Not a trick question.
I can’t afford.
What is it? Some place I can’t afford.
That’s That’s the right answer.
Um, would you be surprised to hear, Mr.
Secretary, that the housing allowance afforded to Coast Guard personnel stationed in the Hamptons is the same.
The housing allowance there is the same in the Hamptons as the amount afforded to those who were stationed in more affordable, middle class, bluecollar neighborhoods elsewhere on Long Island.
Is that a surprise to you that those two allowances are the same? Uh it well yeah it is but it isn’t because we have talked to the comedon about this we’re looking at doing a pay raise across the across the force by 7%.
We’re looking at the housing too.
The comedon has made this an issue because unfortunately a lot of places where the coastard has been for many many years it’s beautiful area and um communities have grown up around it which has put a strain on on housing.
So, we got to bring back um Coastgard housing and make it affordable.
