Valley Interfaith Project (VIP) held a press conference with Congresswoman Yasmin Ansari following a surprise oversight visit to the ICE Holding Facility in Phoenix, demanding accountability for immoral conditions facing detainees, overridden holding times and capacity limits, and how immigration enforcement is harming people in their own pews.

The unannounced visit surfaced conditions VIP has long raised concerns about, including a pattern of medical neglect inside the facility.

"We know that rules have been broken and norms have been broken left and right," the Congresswoman said following the visit, according to KTAR News. "We know that people are being treated incredibly inhumanely, that there is a severe lack of access to quality medical care, that there is medical neglect."

Ansari said more than 52 people have died in ICE custody nationally since January 2025, including Emmanuel Damas, who died at an Arizona facility from what began as a toothache. She also revealed that members of Congress are no longer permitted to speak with detainees during oversight visits.

At the press conference, VIP leader Deacon Joseph Stickney, who has served at St. Louis the King Catholic Church in Glendale for 22 years, put a face on the impact of immigration enforcement.

"Marisol Ordunez is the sister of my God-daughters," Stickney said. "She has two small children, and her husband worked installing flooring. On May 20th of last year, her family showed up to their court-appointed hearing to review their case for asylum — fleeing gangs that had repeatedly shot up their home with their children inside. Instead of being given a trial, they were met by ICE officers at the courthouse. Without a judgment from the court, Marisol and her family were taken, held in detention...and deported to Guatemala."

The people being held in these facilities are not strangers," Stickney said. "They are our neighbors. They are the families we sit next to in the pews on Sunday morning."

Stickney called for bipartisan action on detention conditions.

This is not about political parties. It's a question of human dignity. As leaders with Valley Interfaith Project, we invite representatives from both parties to come together for the protection of human dignity, to take action to ensure that facilities like this one are not allowed to become human cages."

[Photo credit: Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, Arizona Mirror]

Rep. Yassamin Ansari says ICE was Allowed to Ignore Detainee Limits for a Year, KTAR News [pdf]

Ansari Makes Surprise Visit to Phoenix ICE Facility after Mirror Report, AZ Mirror [pdf]