‘Depravity’: Concerns mount about conditions in Burlington ICE facility

Local News

With ICE arrests rising, some say a Burlington facility designed for short stays is often overcrowded and inhospitable.

As ICE agents work to ramp up their enforcement operations in Massachusetts and beyond, the agency has faced sustained criticism for the heavy-handed tactics it employs in the field. But simultaneously, another steady drumbeat of criticism is rising about the conditions at an ICE building in Burlington. 

Marcelo Gomes da Silva, the Milford teen who was arrested on his way to volleyball practice, spent six nights in the ICE Boston field office in Burlington. Upon his release earlier this month, Gomes da Silva spoke about the “humiliating” conditions in which he was kept. His claims were amplified by Democratic lawmakers who toured the building and others opposed to the Trump administration’s deportation agenda. 

ICE leaders are vigorously denying the allegations and accusing Democratic officials of using the claims to further prioritize “criminal aliens” at the expense of American citizens. 

Now, new reports about the conditions are coming to light. 

“ICE conditions at detention centers across the board have always been, I think the official term is ‘sh—y.’ It’s never been good, but this is a new level of depravity,” Robin Nice, an immigration attorney who represents Gomes da Silva and other people being detained in Burlington, told Boston.com. 

Cramped conditions

Located on District Avenue, nestled among other inconspicuous office buildings and the Burlington Mall, the ICE office is intended to hold detainees for short periods of time as they go through the agency’s administrative intake process. They are usually moved to longer-term detention facilities, but sometimes detainees need to stay at the Burlington office for longer periods, according to an ICE spokesperson. 

Although these instances are a “rarity,” the office is “equipped to facilitate a longer-term stay when necessary,” the spokesperson said. Detainees are given plenty of food, regular phone access, showers, legal representation, and access to medical care when needed, they added. 

Others paint a different picture. Nice said that it is “extremely” difficult to get in touch with her clients there. Often, she and her colleagues need to file habeas petitions and seek assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office just to contact their clients, she told Boston.com. 

Nice and others say that overcrowding is a concern. The number of detainees being housed at the facility fluctuates by the hour, according to federal officials. ICE assesses factors like a detainee’s medical needs, whether they can be deported, and the bed space availability at other facilities when determining if the detainee should be moved from the Burlington office. 

Gomes da Silva told Nice that when he stayed in the facility earlier this month, there were about 25-35 people being kept in each of the office’s four holding areas. By the time Reps. Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss toured the facility upon Gomes da Silva’s release, only about 45 people in total were being detained there. ICE officials made sure to “empty out” the facility before the lawmakers conducted their oversight, Nice alleged. 

Gomes da Silva’s extended stay in the Burlington office was painted as an anomaly by ICE officials. They blamed a court order for forcing them to keep the teenager in Burlington instead of transferring him to a detention center in Plymouth. 

A photo purportedly taken by someone within the Burlington office shows six detainees in close proximity to one another packed into the corner of a holding area. Most of them appear to be sleeping directly on concrete, with mylar blankets to keep warm. Nice shared the photo with Boston.com. 

While Nice believes that the number of detainees in Burlington remains around 50 or fewer right now, she worries that the Trump administration’s escalating immigration crackdown could lead to a large bottleneck again. The White House is reportedly setting arrest quotas and openly targeting Democratic-run cities. When ICE officials announced that they had detained close to 1,500 people in a targeted operation in Massachusetts over the month of May, they promised that their work would not slow down. 

Nice, who has practiced immigration law since 2012, said that this represents a starkly different landscape than what she and her colleagues experienced during the first Trump administration. Federal agents are more organized now and more willing to be indiscriminate in who they detain, she said. 

“That’s what happens when you give people quotas and you take them off the leash,” Nice said. 

Other concerns 

Immediately after touring the field office, Moulton and Auchincloss compared the conditions they saw to some they experienced in the Marines. 

The conditions were “completely inappropriate” and even “inhumane” for long-term detention, Moulton said. 

An ICE spokesperson told Boston.com that the two lawmakers “had no concerns” after touring the facility. 

“Putting words in the mouths of federal lawmakers is nothing compared to detaining an 18-year-old for six days on a concrete floor without a window, so I guess that’s what we should expect. As I said both before and after touring the facility, Burlington was designed for temporary holding and processing only, and it is grossly inappropriate for detaining anyone overnight, let alone an 18-year-old honors student,” Moulton said in response to the comment from the ICE spokesperson. 

Gomes da Silva described being held in a cramped room with dozens of other, older men. He said that they all had to share a single toilet and had no privacy. The detainees had no access to fresh air and slept on hard concrete floors at night, he said. 

ICE is accusing Gomes da Silva of spreading “blatant lies” about his time in custody in Burlington. He received three meals a day that included fresh catered sandwiches, received prompt medical attention, and even remarked how “nice” the officers working in the Burlington facility were treating everyone, a spokesperson said. 

Gomes da Silva responded to these accusations this week, telling WCVB that he had “no reason” to lie.

“Of course, they have to defend their organization. But sometimes, it’s OK to accept that you messed up,” he told the station.

Nice said that she is still hearing reports about poor ventilation, meager meals, and female detainees not being given adequate access to menstrual products. 

A woman who had her period at the facility recently was denied menstrual products and bled through her clothing, WBUR recently reported. An officer allegedly gave her a bottle of water to wash up with. 

Nice said that she often worries about detainees getting the medical care they need. 

“If you have a preexisting medical condition, and you either can’t communicate that or ICE doesn’t care, I’m super worried about that,” she said. 

Other reports indicate that detainees don’t have access to showers or sinks to wash up in. Lights always remain on, making it difficult for them to sleep and adding to their disorientation. 

“I sleep on the ground, I haven’t showered, I don’t eat well,” Kary Diaz Martinez, a mother of two from the Dominican Republic who was being held in Burlington, recently told The Boston Globe. “I can’t take being locked up like this anymore.”

Local response

Despite the reports, local officials appear to be limited in what they can immediately do. Gov. Maura Healey met with Gomes da Silva last week, asking questions about the conditions he faced and expressing contempt for the fact that the teenager was detained in the first place. 

A spokesperson for Healey referred Boston.com to the state’s congressional delegation for questions regarding conditions in the Burlington office, which is a federal facility. 

The Burlington Select Board said in a statement last week that the town is aware of concerns regarding the facility and that it may be operating as a detention facility, which could be “inconsistent with the zoning approvals previously granted.” 

Burlington officials are reviewing the situation. 

“We are in the process of evaluating whether any local zoning or permitting conditions have been violated, and we are consulting with appropriate legal and regulatory experts to determine what, if any, steps may be taken by the Town,” the Select Board said. 

But the federal government is not bound by local zoning rules. It can choose to comply with local zoning laws and some federal legislation suggests that federal agencies should make an effort to comply with local zoning if possible, but this is never required, according to John Infranca, a law professor at Suffolk University and an expert on the topic. 

The field office is designated as a “general industrial” district under Burlington’s zoning bylaws. Designations like this generally allow for a range of uses. After looking at the town’s zoning code, Infranca said that the facility’s usage appears to be in keeping with what the code envisions. Even if the use does indeed violate local zoning laws, Infranca said he strongly doubts that a court would find that the federal government is required to comply with the laws. 

In the absence of local officials having the power to change things within the field office, it is incumbent upon residents to voice their concerns and hold the government accountable, Nice said. She views this as a test. 

“The administration is seeing how far they can push things, how high they can turn up the heat before people begin to realize they’re boiling,” she said.

Her message to the public is a simple one: “Be angry.”