(C) Arizona Mirror This story was originally published by Arizona Mirror and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . ‘Appallingly short’ of basic human dignity: Democrats demand answers about Mesa ICE facility [1] ['Jerod Macdonald-Evoy', 'More From Author', 'April', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2026-04-10 After three Democratic members of Congress made a surprise visit to a Mesa Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility Thursday night and saw detainees in holding cells “like sardines,” the trio are now demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That visit came in the wake of the Arizona Mirror’s reporting earlier Thursday detailing how the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, located at Mesa-Gateway Airport, has been operating far over its 157-person capacity for most of this year. The Mirror’s analysis, in fact, found that one of the few times ICE was detaining fewer people than that was when two of those same Democrats toured the facility during a scheduled oversight visit in February. “What we observed constitutes a failure to meet basic detention standards, raises serious legal and humanitarian concerns, and must be addressed immediately,” U.S. Reps. Yassamin Ansari, Adelita Grijalva and Greg Stanton wrote in their letter. DHS did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. The facility, first exclusively reported on by the Mirror, takes up 25,000 square-feet in a building located at the Mesa-Gateway Airport, where it shares space with the U.S. Forest Service and the Phoenix Interagency Fire Center. “Detainees were packed together tightly, with no access to beds and sleeping on a concrete floor,” the letter said. “We observed rooms labeled for a capacity of 21 individuals holding approximately 40 to 50 people, crammed at densities that prevented individuals from sitting, lying down, or moving freely, forcing many to sleep on concrete floors without bedding.” The lawmakers said on Thursday night, after their oversight visit, that detainees were held there for 72 hours or more before departing. This also isn’t the first time lawmakers have toured the facility. When Democratic U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton and Yassamin Ansari told ICE they would be conducting that oversight visit in February — ICE policy requires they give seven days’ notice before arriving — the number of detainees dropped to some of the lowest numbers the overcrowded facility had seen in 2026, according to the Mirror’s analysis of recently released data. Almost immediately after the inspection, those numbers began to climb again, and within days, the facility was once again operating beyond capacity. “Given the conditions we noted in this facility, it is particularly appalling that individuals are being held well beyond the facility’s intended short-term holding period of less than 12 hours,” the letter continued. “Holding individuals for multiple days in a facility designed for short-term processing raises serious concerns about systemic misuse of the facility.” Detainees are supposed to be at AROCC for no more than 12 hours while they wait to be loaded onto a plane, either so they can be deported or transferred to a different ICE facility. The Mirror’s reporting found that publicly available data shows how overcrowded the facility has become this year: The average length of stay in 2026 is about 36 hours, compared to the same time frame in 2025, when the average stay was about 12 hours. In 2025, the average daily population was approximately 21 people for the same timeframe. So far in 2026, there have been an average of 274 detainees each day. The Mirror found one individual in the data who stayed for 18 days, coinciding with a time when the population of the facility was near its peak of 777 individuals in a single day. The three Democrats also expressed concern over the facility’s lack of sufficient toilets, showers and access to medical care. “For example, during our brief visit, detainees identified individuals who were ill and asked us for assistance in obtaining sanitary napkins. We are also deeply concerned about lack of access to drinking water for detainees, which is inhumane and dangerous, particularly during the upcoming summer season,” the letter said. “The reported presence of visibly ill individuals without adequate isolation or care raises concerns about infectious disease risk within the facility.” Ansari, Grijalva and Stanton said they believe the facility’s current conditions may be in violation of ICE’s Performance-Based National Detention Standards, as well as other federal detention requirements. The letter asks DHS to answer six questions: The average maximum length of time at the facility for the last 12 months Steps ICE is taking to ensure adequate medical care, climate control and basic hygiene Steps ICE is taking to quarantine ill individuals Steps ICE is taking to ensure individuals are not held beyond the intended short-term timeframe How these conditions fit within “relevant medical, fire, and safety standards of local, state, and federal statutes” Provide all internal inspections, audits and incident reports related to the facility in the past 12 months The lawmakers have asked DHS to respond by April 24. “Congress has a responsibility to ensure that all federal detention facilities operate in a manner consistent with the law and in accordance with basic human dignity,” the Democrats wrote. “The conditions we observed are appallingly short of that standard and demand immediate remediation.” Congress will be returning next week and is expected to debate funding for DHS with many Democrats drawing a hardline in the sand on any additional funding for ICE. [END] --- [1] Url: https://azmirror.com/2026/04/10/appallingly-short-of-basic-human-dignity-democrats-demand-answers-about-mesa-ice-facility/ Published and (C) by Arizona Mirror Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/azmirror/