(C) Arizona Mirror
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Q&A: Rep. Yassamin Ansari on Eloy detention center, El Salvador and the new travel ban [1]
['John Washington Arizona Luminaria', 'Madeline Bates Cronkite News', 'Ariana Figueroa', 'Jerod Macdonald-Evoy', 'Gloria Rebecca Gomez', 'Emily Holshouser', 'More From Author', '- June', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class']
Date: 2025-06-16
Rep. Yassamin Ansari has traveled to El Salvador, visited detention centers and introduced legislation opposing immigration policies in her first five months in Congress
The Democratic freshman representative of Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses most of the city of Phoenix and part of Glendale, is only five months into her first term, but is already starting to make a name for herself in national politics.
She was one of a handful of Democratic politicians to travel to El Salvador to push the Trump administration to bring back the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia. She has pushed back against the latest travel ban, which restricts or completely bars people from 19 countries from traveling to the United States. The ban went into effect June 9.
Ansari, 33, also recently visited a detention center in Eloy to draw attention to what she says are abusive conditions faced by immigrants.
She called what she heard from people detained in the detention center, which is run by the for-profit company CoreCivic, “sickening.”
“So many of the detainees shared that they do not have reliable access to basics like food and water or essential medical care when they are in crisis,” she said after her visit. “Detainees described overcrowded, moldy cells, forced and dehumanizing marches outside in the Arizona heat, constant berating from guards, conditions worse than prison.”
Ryan Gustin, CoreCivic’s senior public affairs director, told Arizona Republic after Ansari’s visit that the company takes “seriously our obligation to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards at our U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-contracted facilities, including Eloy Detention Center (EDC).”
In a statement to Arizona Luminaria, Greer Millard, Communications Manager for Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, said “For years, our clients have consistently reported instances of mistreatment and abuse while detained at Eloy.”
“Our clients report many of the same things that Rep. Ansari heard,” Millard added, “including being subjected to racist, abusive language from the guards, not receiving needed medical care, being served substandard food, and more.”
Her first piece of legislation, a bill introduced in February, was a resolution “celebrating the legacy and contributions of immigrants and opposing discriminatory immigration policies.”
The resolution also condemns “all forms of discrimination against immigrants” and calls for “the implementation of humane immigration policies that prioritize family unity, protect human rights, and promote a pathway to citizenship for longtime residents.”
Ansari has also recently co-sponsored three bills focused on urban heat mitigation.
The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Q. Your proposed resolution celebrates immigrants, recognizing their humanity and contributions to this country. Do you think it’s possible to start steering the country back to more humane polices toward migrants, and if so, how?
A. I absolutely do believe it’s possible and I think that with the vast overreach of this administration and the way that ICE is operating in such an emboldened manner, people across the country, whether they voted for Donald Trump or not, are waking up to what this administration actually meant when it talked about mass deportations.
I think it’s a sad reality that many people genuinely thought the president would simply go after quote-unquote hardened criminals, and that’s clearly not the case.
I think the pendulum will swing back and it’s important to have leadership talking about immigration issues and legal pathways and protecting DACA recipients and temporary farm workers and so many other folks in this country.
Q. Besides calling out that “vast overreach,” what else needs to be done?
A. For years Democrats and some Republicans have been talking about the term comprehensive immigration reform, and I do think that’s needed, but I also believe we need to reimagine what that looks like and what our message is, and then actually deliver on it. It’s just been so long that both sides of the aisle have been talking about immigration issues but there’s been very little action.
Q. What would a new and realizable vision for immigration policy look like?
A. I think the priority should absolutely be providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
There was a DACA recipient I met who was in detention in Eloy. The fact that these individuals, someone who told me she’s grown up in Phoenix, that her siblings are citizens, could end up at a detention center in our state is really terrifying.
I think that we need to think more deeply about the solution for refugees and asylum seekers as well.
I also think that another really good piece of bipartisan legislation from last session was the Dignity Act. [Democratic Representative from Texas] Veronica Escobar was the lead on the House side and has done a lot of work on this issue. I think the models are there.
Q. Turning to your visit to Eloy, you spoke to multiple women who decried abuses. You saw what you saw, you called it out, and now what’s next? How do you actually improve conditions?
A. First of all, we can’t let it go. We can’t let all of the countless other issues going on in this country instigated by Donald Trump overshadow inhumane and horrific conditions within these centers. I am working really hard to draw attention to the corruption and the fact that so many of these private prison companies are making record-breaking profits, and drawing the link between their campaign contributions to Trump and now the unprecedented expansion they’re about to see. I think it’s really important for members of Congress all across the country to continue going to the detention centers.
Q. Do you have any planned follow-ups for Eloy?
A. We’re working on a letter or a written response about what we heard from the women. I would also definitely go back. I have no plans at this moment, but I definitely see that as a possibility.
Q. You opposed the first travel ban and shared how it affected your own family. Is there anything you’ve learned since then, through that fight, that will change how you advocate against the most recent ban?
A. We’ve spoken with a number of immigration attorneys and experts on the topic and they have mentioned to us that this time around the administration was much smarter. They’ve written it in a way that’s harder to overturn in court. So it’s going to be a bigger challenge to overcome. My fear is that with so many of these horrific things that Trump has done, there are so many other things happening it’s hard to keep the attention on something like the travel ban. I think the courts will be, hopefully, our most effective avenue.
What has always been so frustrating and hypocritical about these policies is on one hand — I’ll speak to just Iran even though it’s one of many countries on the list, — our government, whether it’s Democrat or Republican, rightfully recognizes that the regime in Iran is authoritarian, that it murders people, that it’s a state sponsor of terrorism, but then doesn’t want to to welcome any of the people who who are trying to flee that same government.
Q. Did your visit to El Salvador change the way you saw or understood the situation in detention centers in Arizona?
A. I think one of the main points of connection I see is the dynamic of who is profiting and why from Trump’s entire immigration agenda. In the case of the domestic private prison companies, we know some of them are making billions of dollars. In the case of El Salvador, we know they’re interested in quadrupling the capacity and number of people that they send to El Salvador, and they’re paying the government there a significant amount of money per person to keep people. I was not able to actually go to CECOT [the Salvadoran megaprison].
The main purpose of the visit was to continue to press for due process, not just in the case of Kilmar Garcia, but everyone who has been sent there.
Q. You’re going to get a new colleague soon, as we’re in the special election cycle for Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District. Do you plan to make an endorsement?
A. No, I’m not planning to endorse. I like several of the candidates and think they all bring great experiences to the table. But it’s a tough time to be in Congress. I’ll tell any of them that.
Editor’s note: Arizona Luminaria reporter John Washington’s wife works as a staff attorney for the Florence Project. She was not involved in any of the interviews or research for this story.
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https://azmirror.com/2025/06/16/qa-rep-yassamin-ansari-on-eloy-detention-center-el-salvador-and-the-new-travel-ban/
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