MACCLENNY, Fla. — A Florida congressman is calling for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Baker County Detention Center to be shut down.
Congressman Maxwell Frost, who represents Florida’s 10th congressional district, made those remarks during a live conversation on social media Monday afternoon.
Frost was joined by Amy Godshall, an attorney for the ACLU, and a woman whose husband was detained at the ICE facility in Baker County. They outlined allegations of harassment, medical neglect and unsanitary living conditions.
According to Godshall, there is not enough food or water for detainees, mold is growing in the building and the roof is leaking.
“Baker does not provide adequate access to hygiene products. They do not give enough toilet paper. People will regularly run out of toilet paper between disbursements of toilet paper and end up using their socks to wipe one for feces and one for urine because they have nothing else to use as toilet paper," Godshall said.
Godshall added that the detainees are not receiving adequate medical attention.
Meredith's husband was in the Baker County Detention Center for a year. She said he was often denied medical attention and the staff violated guidelines.
"My husband was put in situations where his life was in jeopardy because of the immediate stop of these medications that he relies on. He was constantly being threatened with solitary confinement," Meredith said.
This livestream came after two new documents were filed last week.
The ACLU filed a new civil rights complaint on behalf of a woman who was detained in the Baker County Detention Center. The complaint claims she was denied psychiatric care, harassed by staff and unnecessarily placed in solitary confinement. It also alleges translation services were rarely used.
The other document was a whistleblower disclosure report. The whistleblower is a former nurse practitioner at the Baker County Detention Center. She claims she witnessed unsanitary living conditions and mistreatment of detainees. She also alleges staff would falsify medical records. She believes she was fired from the job because she brought these concerns to her superiors.
The Baker County Detention Center is managed by the Baker County Sheriff's Office. The detention center houses both the county jail and the ICE facility. The sheriff's office is contracted by the federal government to oversee the ICE facility. The ICE facility is not punitive detention, meaning the detainees are not being held there while they await criminal prosecution.
Congressman Frost is now calling on Congress to end the contract with the Baker County Sheriff's Office and shut down the ICE facility.
"This facility has to be shut down, it has to be shut down immediately. It's not in accordance with the way the federal government should be running any sort of facility. But also it's just completely inhumane to treat other humans this way and it's not something we should be doing," Frost said.
First Coast News reached out to the Baker County Sheriff's Office for a comment on the new allegations. A spokesperson said they do not comment on pending litigation.
The full civil rights complaint and whistleblower report can be read below.