Former Arizona sheriff Mark Lamb physically shook with rage Tuesday as he decried what he called the “irritatingly high” standards of care that migrant detainees are given while in custody — comments made amid allegations that detained migrants are subjected to “inhumane conditions.”
Lamb, who supported President Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” campaign to overturn the 2020 election, was responding to comments made by Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), who visited the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Elroy Detention Center on Saturday. During her tour, Ansari spoke with 23 migrant detainees, who she said spoke to the "dehumanizing, racist [and] unacceptable treatment” while held at the facility.
“They do not have access to quality water; the water that they are given to drink has chlorine in it, it is giving them rashes on their bodies,” Ansari said Saturday. “They all said that they are getting used underwear.”
Lamb called Ansari a “joke,” said that it was “sad that she represents Arizona,” and outright denied claims that migrant detainees were treated inhumanly, arguing that, if anything, they were treated too well.
“The standard of care that is required for people that are in our facilities, especially those on an ICE hold, is extremely high, irritatingly high, to the point where most sheriffs don't even want to engage in those contracts because of how high the standard is,” Lamb shouted, catching his breath mid-sentence.
“The care in those facilities is beyond what Americans would expect for somebody who broke the law and came to this country illegally. She is wrong, she is inciting the public, and I can tell you first hand that those facilities far surpass the care that we should expect for somebody who broke the law and came to this country illegally.”
Ansari said that during her tour of the facility, which lasted four hours, she spoke with one detainee who had been diagnosed with leukemia – Arbella Rodriguez Marquez – and that she had been denied specialized treatment. Marquez, according to Ansari, had bruises all over her body, and was regularly “coughing up blood” and “vomiting.”
Lamb largely dismissed Ansari’s critiques, comparing migrant detainees’ complaints over conditions to his own children complaining about food.
“This congresswoman's a joke, it's sad that she represents Arizona, and she doesn't do it very well,” Lamb said.
“I know this facility very, very well, it was in my county; the standard of care is extremely high. Look, I have five kids; if I prepared food for five kids, one of them was going to complain. Imagine having to do that for thousands of people, especially people that aren't from this country!”
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