ICE in MN: Ilhan Omar, Craig share what they saw at Whipple Federal Building

[0:04]Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon. Um, I'm Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, here with Congresswoman Angie Craig. Um, this was uh an an attempt at us doing uh our congressional duty, um, and performing oversight at the Whipple um Federal building. Uh, we were finally, um, this was the third time tried for uh Congresswoman Craig, um, my second attempt. We were finally let in. We were given uh a full and complete uh tour um of the facility. Um, and, you know, the the the objective of um this uh oversight was always to be able to come in at any moment. To see what is taking place at these detention facilities and how people are being treated. When they instituted the one week notice, we knew that things were going to be different. And we weren't surprised at what we saw today. We went into the facility and there was not a single detainee that we could see or talk to. Every cell, every inch of it was completely empty. And when we asked, why isn't there anyone here, because we obviously know they've been detaining people. They said the last people left at 11:30. It seems a little too convenient, knowing that our scheduled visit was going to be at 12:00 PM. Uh that the last detainees would be uh transported out of the facility at 11:30. We know that our colleague, Senator Tina Smith also had an scheduled uh meeting today, where she also was told uh that the detainees left a little before she got there. And there was a possibility some might come in after she leaves. We've been told that on average, as the surge has been drawn down, uh they are getting about 20 a day detainees that they are picking up.