Rep. Eugene Vindman came out strongly Wednesday against a potential plan to put a federal immigration detention center in Stafford County.
The Democrat, whose 7th District includes the Fredericksburg area, noted that the proposed facility would house up to 10,000 detainees, and he pointed out that he and his family arrived in America as immigrants.
“My family and I came to this country in search of the American Dream, fleeing oppression in Soviet Ukraine with $800 in our pockets,” Vindman said in a prepared statement. “I believe we’re at our best as a nation when we treat everyone with dignity and respect and provide opportunities to new American families like mine.
“We can have secure borders without being cruel, and the proposed facility in Stafford would be cruel to the core, counter to the desires of our neighbors in Stafford County. We need to fight it, and I’ll do that every day in Congress.”
A decision to put the detention center has not been finalized, and Stafford supervisors have said over the past few days that they know very little about it. The facility would be part of a change in how immigrant detainees are held, and plans for it came to light in a news report late last month.
