After Oversight Visit, Pingree, House Dems Call for Release of Their Constituents, Closure of Dilley Detention Facility

Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is once again calling for the release of her constituent, Olivia Andre, from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center in Dilley, Texas following an official Congressional oversight visit on Tuesday. Pingree-along with colleagues U.S. Representatives Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Christian Menefee (D-Texas.), and Mark Takano (D-Calif.)-held a press conference where they detailed what they witnessed at the Dilley facility and shared stories of those they met with.

"I came here today for one specific reason and one specific constituent. [But] I want to validate all of the things that my colleagues have been saying, and everything you're hearing is true: We need to close Dilley, we need to close these facilities, there was nothing about the conditions that were humane-and it's done with our tax dollars, in our name, and it has to stop," Pingree said during the press conference.

In April, Pingree called on ICE to immediately release Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old student who has been detained in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas since November. In a letter to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, Pingree questioned the legal basis for Olivia's continued detention, as no explanation has been given to Andre or her legal counsel.

Olivia and her family are asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and have been living in Portland, where Olivia was a first-year nursing student. The rest of her family-mother Carine Balenda Mbizi; brother Joel Andre, 16; and sister Estafania Andre, 14-were released from the Dilley Processing Center in March.

Pingree previously conducted oversight visits of the ICE field office in Scarborough, Maine and the ICE facility in Burlington, Mass.

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