Michigan congresswomen get no answers on Baldwin ICE facility death during visit and tour

Circumstances around the death of Nenko Gantchev, who died in ICE custody in December, are still unclear after a visit to the detention facility where he died, according to U.S. Reps. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and Hillary Scholten (D-Grand Rapids), who toured the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Mich. on Tuesday.

“What we were informed of is that there is still an ongoing review of his death, and yet a man is dead, and he died here in this ICE center, this ICE processing center, this detention center,” Stevens told reporters following the facility visit to the privately owned detention center, which is currently working under a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It is the agency’s largest facility in the Midwest and as of Feb. 5 was at high capacity, reportedly holding 1,467 people.

Stevens and Scholten sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem shortly after Gantchev’s death calling for more information. The agency has described the cause of death as “suspected natural causes” while the official cause remains under investigation.

“They have said that they need to get the full picture from his death report, and so what that was described to me as is an autopsy and a further analysis of what contributed to his death,” Stevens added. “I hope that we can get a full picture of the care and the treatment that he was receiving here, and what biological causes or other factors contributed to his death.”

The congresswomen have not received any response from Noem to their inquiries, and Stevens said that she is disappointed in Noem, adding, “I have lost faith in her leadership and her ability to run the Department of Homeland Security, and we are still waiting for answers from her.”

She added that the congresswomen pressed staff at the facility on the types and depth of medical care available at the facility, and were told that the care is “to the standpoint of ambulatory or emergency level care, and then if situations escalate, they do contact and move to a hospital and healthcare network.”

“But we are here today with still no answers about what happened to Mr. Gantchev, why he died here at this ICE processing facility in Baldwin, and we are going to continue to keep asking,” she continued.

Stevens and Scholten were also given a tour of the facility and spoke with four detainees, though Scholten said that nearly 100 detainees had signed up to try to speak with the congresswomen during their visit. The visit was cut from three to two hours by facility staff, Scholten said, though she noted that staff had been “very forthcoming in allowing us to come here.”

Scholten acknowledged that this was a pre-planned visit and that employees would have had the chance to prepare the facilities in advance of their arrival.

“The facility today was clean,” she said. “Individuals were getting their meals on time. We heard from individuals who said that they were getting everything that they need.”

Stevens also seemed generally impressed with the staff during the visit and their treatment of detainees.

“Of note, there is female leadership here, and there are women who walked with us today and explained, on the intake process, how important it is to treat people with humanity,” Stevens said. “And that obviously really stuck out to me, because some of the things that we are witnessing before our eyes, in our neighborhoods, in our streets, is really a lack of humanity.”

Both congresswomen did note, however, that at least one individual who they spoke to expressed a fear of punishment or retribution for sharing his concerns about the facility — though they attempted to speak with him privately, they were denied that opportunity. Stevens noted that she plans to remain in touch with that person’s family in Macomb County to ensure he is not punished for speaking with the congresswomen.

“He was kept for several weeks in what everyone there refers to as ‘the hole,’ which is similar to a solitary confinement,” Scholten said of the same detainee. “He spoke of being kept in a freezing room where he couldn’t feel his toes and having his food just thrown into his cell. So these are things that we really need to take seriously.”

The congresswomen said that they also spoke with one of the few female detainees, a pregnant woman who had been taken into the facility a few days ago.

She was “very distressed, very upset, lacking answers, needing translation services, a Spanish speaker. And that was obviously quite sobering,” Stevens said, adding that this detainee, who had asylum status, also has an 18-month old daughter at home, and she normally splits childcare duties with her husband so both can work.

This same detainee did note that the health care services she has received while in detention have been satisfactory. “She said that, yes, they are going above and beyond to give her everything they need. So we do need to be honest about that,” Scholten said.

But the issue of translation services, as well as a confusing schedule of when visits with loved ones or lawyers, is persistent.

“The communication really stood out to me as well. When we said that we wanted to meet with individuals, we impressed upon them, if these individuals did not speak English or Spanish, we needed interpretation services available,” Scholten said. “When we got to meet with the men in the detention center, there was only one English speaker, the other two had non-Spanish interpretation needs that were not able to be met. Even though we had been assured there would be an interpreter there, no interpreter was available.”

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.

This article, “Michigan congresswomen get no answers on Baldwin ICE facility death during visit and tour,” has been republished from the Michigan Advance under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.