The Youngest Senator's Oldest Fight
At 38, Jon Ossoff has built a reputation documenting corruption. Now he's documenting it in ICE detention centers—starting in his own backyard.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, is establishing himself as one of the Senate’s most relentless overseers of immigration detention, releasing a sweeping October report detailing 85 credible cases of medical neglect and 82 credible cases of detainees being denied adequate food or water across the federal detention system this year.
The findings paint a disturbing picture of systemic failure: untreated chest pain culminating in heart attacks, missed insulin doses for diabetics, contaminated water used for infant formula, and vermin-tainted meals, with the preponderance of reports originating in Florida, Texas, and Georgia—Ossoff’s home state.
The senator’s investigation has identified nine oversight letters sent to federal agencies since January, five of which remain unanswered, and documents significant impediments to congressional inspections of detention facilities. The document also notes that staff from a Department of Homeland Security facility reported that “ambu…