Protesters targeted the new interim head of Detroit’s Customs and Border Protection office as he took over that job Monday.
Aaron Hull has been temporarily reassigned to Detroit from CBP’s El Paso sector. He was harshly criticized for conditions in several migrant detention centers there.
A US Homeland Security Inspector General’s report found dangerous overcrowding at one facility, along with lice outbreaks and staff falling ill from the squalor.
Protester Thor Person says that's troubling.
“And Aaron oversaw all this, and instead of being fired or disciplined, he was sent to Detroit,” Person says.
Person and others fear Hull will step-up hardline immigration enforcement in the Detroit area.
Zoe Villegas helped organize the protests. She says Hull’s arrival in Detroit intensifies fears people already have.
“It really doesn’t matter what someone’s immigration status is, this is about human rights,” Villegas says. “We even have people who are members of our community who have been born and raised in the U.S., and they have been pulled over, profiled, and thrown into detention centers.”
The protesters say they fear what Hull’s arrival means for Detroit’s immigrant communities. They say he should have been fired instead of reassigned, and that the migrant detention centers should be shut down.
Hull has defended the El Paso facilities, saying the agency was doing its best to keep up with a record influx of migrants.
