The fight to shut down a controversial family immigrant detention center in Pennsylvania received high-profile support on Thursday from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who mentioned the issue during a campaign event ahead of the state’s primary.
Sanders, a Vermont independent senator, told a crowd in Reading, Pennsylvania, that he believes “that it’s time to shut down” the nearby Berks County Residential Center.
“The government should not be in the painful and inhumane business of locking up families who have fled unspeakable violence in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries throughout the world,” he said. “Instead we should treat these families with the compassion, the dignity and the respect they deserve.”
Sanders has previously called for an end to family immigrant detention, which ballooned in 2014 after a surge in the number of mothers and children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. But highlighting Berks was significant for advocates in the state who have been working hard to get families, many of whom are seeking asylum in the U.S., out of detention.
Berks is one of the nation’s three family immigrant detention centers. Two others, established in 2014, are located in Karnes County, Texas, and Dilley, Texas. The Texas centers are far larger and privately operated, while the Berks facility is owned by the county and operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But Berks is no less controversial. Advocates have raised questions about conditions and medical care there. Last week, a former employee was sentenced to prison for institutional sexual assault of a 19-year-old detainee in 2014.