Kentucky’s lone Democratic congressman, U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, joined two of his House colleagues to get a closer look at a Northern Kentucky jail holding federal immigration detainees Monday.
Speaking to reporters in Louisville Tuesday morning, McGarvey said the visit to the facility “as part of our ongoing and continuing oversight of what ICE is doing.” At the Campbell County Detention Center, he had joined U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, of Illinois, and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, of Wisconsin.
While privacy release forms prevented him from publicly sharing specific situations he heard during the visit Monday, McGarvey said “the stories are heartbreaking.”
“We talked to people yesterday, and they told us they’re not getting their medication. We talked to people yesterday who told us that they’re not getting the food they need. We talked to people who told us they’re not getting the medical care they need,” McGarvey said. He added with ICE getting billions in funding, “there is no excuse for them treating detainees this way.”
The Campbell County Detention Center is holding about 135 people on ICE’s behalf, according to data from Relevant Research. Throughout Kentucky, about 10 jails, including Campbell, are housing about 1,200 people for ICE.
In the Campbell jail, 118 of those people are in the non-criminal population.
McGarvey said the House members “went through the normal process” to request the visit, and “didn’t have any problems being granted access.” The House members asked questions and looked at facilities to “find out the conditions that people are really experiencing,” he added. McGarvey also said the visits are “very much part of our oversight duty as members of Congress.”
When asked if he would be part of more visits to jails holding people on behalf of ICE, McGarvey said: “We’ve done these before. We’ll do them again.”
Moore and Ramirez had said they were going to the facility to visit constituents housed there. Moore posted on X that she came to the facility “following reports of inhumane conditions and inadequate medical care of people in custody.” Ramirez said online that “Medical care in ICE detention is not negotiable!”
Campbell County Jailer James Daley, an elected Republican, did not return a voicemail left with his office seeking comment. However, Daley said according to LINK NKY he felt the visit was politically motivated and said claims about inadequate medical care were “an absolute lie.”
The League of Women Voters of Kentucky has been monitoring data regarding people being held by ICE in Kentucky jails, finding that more than 1,000 people are being held in Kentucky’s county jails for immigration reasons. An analysis from the group in March said that about three-fourths of those detained have no criminal record or pending charges.
Becky Jones, the first vice president of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, said the group is concerned with what happens in “publicly funded jails and detention centers,” particularly those in Kentucky where ICE is holding people. The League is a nonpartisan advocacy organization that promotes informing the public.
In its review, the League continues to find more questions.
“The problem that we’re observing is that jail numbers don’t always match what the ICE numbers are, and so we have potentially people who are just disappearing from public record, and that’s concerning because, constitutionally, everybody deserves due process,” Jones said.
Jones added the League would encourage more congressional oversight visits in the future.
“What happens in jails affects everybody. If we cannot have public trust in what’s happening in our jails, everybody loses,” she said.
Kentucky jails are housing large numbers of ICE detainees in part because of funding. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, records showed the Campbell County Detention Center billed ICE approximately $2.6 million to house detainees from April to December.
