‘Overcrowded’: Jamie Raskin says 60 detainees are packed ‘shoulder to shoulder’ in Baltimore ICE holding cell with only one toilet

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin visited people detained by ICE at the George H. Fallon Federal Building in downtown Baltimore on Thursday and claimed that 60 people were crammed shoulder to shoulder into a room with a single toilet and no shower facilities. Raskin claimed in a post on X that a room was set aside for dangerous and violent criminals but remained empty. He demanded immediate answers and action. “I just exercised my right as a member of Congress to conduct an unannounced surveillance inspection of an ICE field facility in Baltimore. The staff I met with respected my right to inspect, but what I saw was disgraceful. Kristi Noem has a $75 billion budget she could use to ensure humane conditions, yet we see 60 men crammed shoulder to shoulder in a room working 24 hours a day with only one toilet and no shower facilities,” the congressman said. “They sleep like sardines under foil blankets. Whether it’s three days or seven days, no one wants their family to be locked up there. The rooms reserved for dangerous criminals and violent offenders are empty. We demand immediate answers and action,” he added. Raskin also called the environment “extremely crowded.” He said there were 134 adults and no children at the facility, but more than 55 children were crammed into holding cells for days on end, CBS News reported.“You couldn’t believe how many people were packed in there,” Raskin said. “This is an office building. It was not built for those purposes.”Raskin said he noticed detainees were fed three meals a day, but detainees slept on the floor, had no shower facilities and had only one toilet in the room.“I would tell the family that their family was in an uncomfortable situation,” Raskin said. “They’re packed together and no one wants to see their families. I hope we can do better in facilities like this across the country.”

Video from ICE waiting room

Last month, a video went viral showing conditions inside an ICE holding cell in Baltimore.Video showed dozens of people packed into one of the rooms. Many of them were lying on the floor.Officials confirmed to Maryland Congresswoman April McClain Delaney that the video was shot inside the George H. Fallon Building.“Entire detention centers that were really only intended to hold people for 12 hours are now being used to hold people for 24, 48, 72 hours or more, depending on whether they ask for habeas corpus, whether they have a medical condition, or whether the transport plane is full,” Rep. McClain Delaney said earlier this month.