Agreen card holder detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has told Newsweek that conditions at the Houston Detention Center are harsh, saying the food served is so poor that he wouldn’t even give it to his dog.
Deon Lewis, who has lived in the United States since 1993, was taken into ICE custody on June 17. He has criminal convictions for cocaine possession, firearm offenses, multiple drug-related charges and driving without a license, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
He has faced serious medical challenges, including sickle cell disease and two lung surgeries due to pneumothorax. Lewis requested to be deported after struggling to live inside the ICE-run facility.
“The conditions in the Houston Detention Center are terrible. From the health care to the food they feed us. This food my dog wouldn’t even eat,” he told Newsweek from inside ICE custody.
The Department of Homeland Security has denied the allegations.
“There is black mold growing in the showers and bathroom floors. The air quality is horrible,” Lewis said.
“Some guards treat us like animals. Not all of them, but I think they try their best to keep us as uncomfortable as they possibly can,” he said.
“These facilities they are holding these people in are not set up correctly for humans to be held in. The conditions are not humane,” he added.
His wife, Roxanne Lewis, told Newsweek, “I have had many nights not being able to sleep from the worry about his health.”
She said that during transfers between detention centers—from Baltimore to New Jersey, Boston, Louisiana and finally Houston—he was denied proper medical attention. She recounted one incident in Louisiana when a nurse allegedly laughed while he vomited on the floor.
President Donald Trump has directed his administration to remove millions of migrants without legal status as he seeks to fulfill his campaign pledge of widespread mass deportations. In addition to people living in the country without legal status, immigrants with valid documentation, including green cards and visas, have been detained.
Lewis has a criminal record dating back to 2002, when he was arrested for cocaine possession, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation, according to the Houston Chronicle. In 2020, he faced additional charges, including possession of marijuana and cocaine and carrying a firearm, the outlet reported.
DHS has defended Lewis’ detention, emphasizing his criminal history and ICE’s commitment to providing medical care and maintaining humane conditions for detainees.
“The fake news refuses to report on Americans raped, murdered, and molested by criminal illegal aliens but maintain their 24-7 news cycle peddling false sob stories for dangerous lawbreakers—like Deon Kevon Lewis,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS.
She continued: “Lewis is a 43-year-old convicted DRUG TRAFFICKER from Trinidad and Tobago, with multiple convictions including for cocaine trafficking, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and driving without a license and carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle.
“ICE provides all detainees access to comprehensive medical, dental and mental health care to include conducting an intake screening within 12 hours of their arrival at each detention facility. DHS takes its commitment to promote safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously.”
Despite DHS’s assurances, Lewis said his experience in detention had been painful and disheartening.
“I am still here being detained, praying to be deported back to my birth country. I am paying for a crime I committed 23 years ago. I paid my dues to society, for the wrong I had done & don’t deserve this,” he said.
His wife described the toll the detention has had on the family, saying: “We are all feeling as a family very depressed. Being without Deon has been extremely difficult. He is a loving Father, Husband, Son, & Friend to many. He isn’t the ‘public safety threat’ as they are trying to portray him as. He is always willing to help someone in need.”
https://www.newsweek.com/green-card-holder-detained-ice-food-2114892