House Democrats demand investigation into Muslim detainees being forced to eat pork

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

Lawmakers were outraged last week when it was alleged that ICE agents at Miami’s Krome Detention Center were forcing several dozen Muslim detainees to eat pork.

Allegations made by some of the inmates state that because of the Covid-19 outbreak, the facility has been serving pre-plated meals as opposed to allowing inmates to choose their meals.

According to a CNN report, the change in policy “has meant that detainees either had to choose between a spoiled halal meal or a meal with pork, according to the letter.”

This is all they had to choose from on a daily basis?

Regardless of whether the allegations are baseless or not, ICE has opened an investigation into the specific complaints.

"ICE's Performance-Based National Detention Standards cover all aspects of detention, to include reasonable accommodation of religious dietary practices. Any claim that ICE denies a reasonable and equitable opportunity for persons to observe their religious dietary practices is false,” said an ICE spokesperson

But an ICE investigation is not enough for several members of the U.S. Congress, as Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Donna Shalala, have signed and sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, demanding that the department investigate the allegations, and looking to how long ICE agents knew of these complaints.

This story is still developing…