By Luisa Loi
La Conner Community News
Following a number of reports and inquiries regarding the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Ferndale, U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen visited one of the buildings in person.
While many questions remain unanswered, Washington’s 2nd congressional district representative said he intends to send a follow-up oversight letter.
“This is a fact-finding mission,” he said in an interview.
Larsen took a 30-minute tour of the building run by Enforcement Removal Operations staff, located on privately-owned property in an industrial park in the Whatcom County city. Pam Larkin, Larsen’s communications director, told La Conner Community News authorities were given a 72-hour notice prior to the visit.
The facility, which had no detainees at the time of Larsen’s visit, is used to process people before they are transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. It features two holding cells, each with a maximum capacity of eight people. On July 1, the maximum time people can be detained there was reduced from 72 to 12 hours for reasons Larson said he wants to find out. Staff reportedly told him the average stay is about four to five hours.
Larsen told La Conner Community News he wants to find out how many people have actually stayed there, what the average length of stay actually is, and how soon a detainee’s A-Number is logged into a database that families can access to find where their loved ones have been taken.
Because of the short stay, he was told, there are no kitchens or showers, but detainees have access to a toilet and a sink. While there are no medical personnel on site, Larsen said there is “a process” for people in need of care. Unlike water, food options are limited because people are not kept there long enough, he said.
There are also two private rooms with doors and telephones for detainees to call their attorney, if they have one.
Larsen said he also plans to visit another facility run by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which has been responsible for the operations that detained nearly 50 people in Lynden in recent months, according to a press release from his office. Though he said he does not know its exact location, ICE staff reportedly told him it’s located nearby.
Last year, his staff visited the U.S. Customs and Border protection building in Ferndale to help Rep. Maxine Dexter in assisting the Merlos family, which included four U.S. citizen children and was detained there for weeks, Larkin wrote in a text.
Larsen also stated that his office will work to establish a process where people who are detained in Ferndale can get the necessary paperwork to request support from his staff.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
