ICE scrambles to find three square meals a day for Chicago detainees after judge trashes ‘take it or leave it’ policy
A judge’s ruling that if the Trump administration is going to make mass arrests of suspected illegal immigrants in Chicago, then it better be prepared to feed those detainees a suitable breakfast, lunch and dinner has immigration officials scrambling to find food vendors.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are hastily making arrangements to provide meals for as many as 70 detainees a day, three times per day, at the Broadview, Illinois facility that has become the flashpoint in protests against the White House’s mass deportation campaign in the Windy City.
According to a notice posted on an online clearinghouse for government contracting opportunities, ICE is now seeking a “food service contractor” capable of providing “composite food packages” by entering into a contract for “the preparation, packaging, and delivery of 70 full box meals three times per day to a detention facility.”
The contracting opportunity also states that the sealed, boxed meals should meet USDA Recommended Daily Allowance guidelines “ensure detainees receive nutritionally balanced meals.”
Those meals should include a breakfast consisting of “a source of protein, whole grains, fruit, and dairy,” a lunch meal made up of “protein entrée, whole grains, vegetables, fruit, and a beverage,” and a dinner consisting of the same elements as lunch.
According to ICE, the contractor should be able to provide meals that “accommodate dietary restrictions, including vegetarian, low-sodium, and allergen-free options” with all of the box meals coming “individually packaged in disposable, eco-friendly containers suitable for single-use” that can “maintain food temperature and quality during transportation.”
Additionally, the contracting opportunity states that the containers should be labeled with which meal is contained within and the date of preparation for delivery at 6:00 am, 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm by a temperature-controlled vehicle.
The requirements in the Statement of Work for the Broadview facility meal provisioning are consistent with those laid out in a temporary restraining order issued against ICE earlier this week by U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman as part of a lawsuit brought against Department of Homeland Security, ICE and Customs and Border Protection officials by a group of detainees who’d been held in the facility.
The lawsuit alleged that ICE and CBP agents had packed as many as 100 detainees into small rooms overnight or for days on end “like a pile of fish” with no room to lie down, forcing detainees to sleep on top of each other or while sitting up, or in bathrooms near urine-soaked floors and clogged toilets.
The plaintiffs also alleged that meals provided to them at Broadview consisted only of “two to three small, cold sandwiches per day” even for pregnant detainees who require extra nutrition.
The allegations echoed claims in a lawsuit surrounding a separate facility in New York City, where a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to improve conditions in a makeshift holding area where detainees said they had little access to food and water, slept on cement floors near toilets, and didn’t have anywhere to bathe for days or weeks at a time.
Alex Woodward contributed reporting from New York
