WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2021) The Biden administration has decided to shut down two migrant detention facilities after it was revealed that detainees there were being held in inadequate conditions, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Thursday.
"Allow me to state one foundational principle: we will not tolerate the mistreatment of individuals in civil immigration detention or substandard conditions of detention," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a memorandum to the Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Tae Johnson.
The two facilities facing closure are the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia.
Mayorkas said the US government has an obligation to maintain high health and safety standards in its facilities and make lasting improvements to the immigration detention system more generally.
Detainees currently held in the two facilities will be transferred to other facilities pursuant with US national security and public safety interests, according to the DHS.�
