The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, will pause its use of the Glades Detention Center in Moore Haven for housing immigrant detainees, according to a press release from ICE. The prison, which is near Lake Okechobee, has been under contract with ICE to house migrant detainees.
The prison has had at least 96 complaints filed against it by civil rights groups and immigrant advocacy groups for failure to provide medical care for detainees and other human rights abuses. Eight legislators, including Representative Debbie Wasserman Schulz, have requested that the facility be shut down.
The Glades County Sheriff’s office was unavailable for comment when reached by WGCU.
The press release from ICE read in part:
“In recent years, ICE has reduced its use of the Glades County Detention Center, in part due to persistent and ongoing concerns related to the provision of detainee medical care.”
The release went on to say that the Department of Homeland Security will not extend its contract with Glades and that any future use of the facility will depend on Glades addressing conditions that do not meet detention standards.
All ICE detainees were transferred out of Glades this week, according to the ACLU.
