Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich lashed out against federal government leaders after Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracted a hotel near schools and a senior living facility to house hundreds of migrants.
On May 29, ICE spent $87 million with the nonprofit group Endeavors to house about 1,200 asylum-seekers in a Scottsdale hotel until Sept. 30. Brnovich, who said he received no notice from officials in President Joe Biden’s administration, slammed the facility for being “literally adjacent to an apartment complex,” near a senior care home, “less than a block from a high school, less than one mile from a preschool, and less than two miles from a middle school.”
“I was extremely disappointed to learn about this through a newspaper report rather than any prior contact from DHS or ICE, even though there are important public safety issues involved in locating any detention center in a community setting,” the attorney general wrote in a Friday letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and acting ICE Director Tae Johnson.
LAREDO BORDER PATROL REPORTS OVER 1,000% UPTICK IN ARRESTS OF CRIMINAL MIGRANTS
Brnovich added that “detention facilities inherently carry some risk” to the general population. He slammed the possibility of some community releases of the migrants and referenced Biden’s February directive to ICE authorities, which commanded officials not to arrest certain illegal immigrants who are not national security or imminent public safety threats.
Last Tuesday, the city of Scottsdale announced it was notified by both ICE and DHS “that a federal contractor would begin operating a temporary hotel facility for immigrant families.” Officials said the majority of the migrants would be in the building for less than 72-hour stays, and leaders had “no current authority to prevent the hotel from being rented.”
At the time, ICE said it was prioritizing the “safety and well-being of children and their parents or guardians.”
“The families that come into ICE custody will be housed in a manner consistent with legal requirements for the safety and well-being of children and their parents or guardians,” the agency said in a statement published by the city. “Custody is intended to be short term, generally less than 72 hours, to allow for immigration enforcement processing and establishing appropriate terms and conditions of release while their immigration proceedings continue. All families will be tested for COVID-19 and receive a health assessment at these Emergency Family Staging Centers.”
Residents in the area on Wednesday erupted in a protest outside of the hotel, demanding the federal government take its initiative elsewhere.
“We shouldn’t be letting them come in the country in the first place,” one man told AZ Family.
Another said, “Do we know that they all have sponsors? Do we know that they have a place to go? Do we know that they’re actually going to show up for their court date? Or they’re just released and they’re on their own? Because that worries me for them.”
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The Biden administration has faced bipartisan backlash for his handling of the crisis on the southern border. In April, agents witnessed more than 178,000 attempted illegal crossings, dwarfing previous numbers. A wave of unaccompanied migrant children has overwhelmed those in Biden’s cohort as the federal government scrambles to open new facilities to house the surge.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
