- Three Democratic members of Congress toured the Campbell County Detention Center and raised concerns about detainees’ access to medical care, women’s healthcare, nutrition and living conditions.
- Campbell County Jailer Jim Daley rejected the allegations, calling claims of inadequate medical care “an absolute lie” and describing the visit as politically motivated.
- The visit comes as Northern Kentucky’s county jails continue to face public scrutiny over their contracts with U.S. Marshals and cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Three Democratic members of the United States Congress toured the Campbell County Detention Center in Newport on Monday afternoon as part of what they described as congressional oversight of the facility’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Wisconsin Congresswomen Gwen Moore, Illinois Congresswoman Delia Ramirez and Kentucky Congressman Morgan McGarvey participated in a guided tour of the detention center led by two members of ICE’s regional field office and jail staff.
Campbell County Jailer Jim Daley said he observed part of the tour.
After the tour, the delegation told members of the press they were concerned for inmates’ wellbeing, specifically regarding daily living standards and access to medical care.
Reps. Moore and Ramirez said they planned to submit a formal list of questions to ICE and Homeland Security, seeking immediate answers to questions they raised about the facility. Moore and Ramirez have both been publicly critical of ICE.
“I know that we have some immediate calls that we have to make as soon as we leave here,” Ramirez said, “because our constituents need medicine, they need a psychologist, they need healthcare and they need to not die from the inhumane conditions of the food that they’re being forced to have to eat here.”
Daley, an elected Republican, refuted the delegation’s criticisms, telling reporters he felt like the visit was politically motivated. In Kentucky, the county jailer is an elected position and is responsible for overseeing the operations of a county detention facility.
“They’re trying to bring the problems they have at home to Northern Kentucky,” Daley said. “Northern Kentucky people don’t live like that. We get along.”
Moore and Ramirez both said they were visiting constituents who were housed at the detention center. Ramirez, who represents a congressional district in the Chicago area, said that because Illinois does not have state-run immigration detention facilities, detainees are housed in nearby states. Immigration enforcement in Kentucky is handled out of the agency’s Chicago field office, although it has a statewide field office in Louisville.
Ramirez publicly questioned the detention center’s handling of women’s healthcare, citing concerns about miscarriage care, access to hospitals and medicine, and alleged that detainees have little or no outdoor recreation.
Moreover, Moore criticized what she characterized as inconsistent decisions about when detainees are transported to hospitals. She also raised concerns about the nutritional quality of meals for detainees with diabetes, pregnancies and other medical conditions.
“Although these people were very nice here, I don’t want people to think that the jailer and the staff here were not polite to us, but there doesn’t seem to be the transparency that we need,” Moore said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re citizen or non-citizen, when you’re in jail, you have a right to be treated like a human being and to receive healthcare as is needed.”
When asked, Daley rejected allegations made by the congress members, calling claims about inadequate medical care “an absolute lie.”
“I can tell you that in Campbell County, we’re very cognizant of providing very good medical care to the people at our facility,” Daley said. “Anything beyond that’s an absolute lie.”
In February, LINK nky reported that all three county jails in Northern Kentucky have contracts with the U.S. Marshals to house ICE detainees.
Earlier in 2026, each county facility’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities came under public scrutiny, as individual citizens and community organizations voiced concerns and levied criticisms during Boone, Kenton and Campbell county fiscal court meetings.
Daley defended the Campbell County Detention Center’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“I get paid to hold inmates from other counties, I get paid to hold inmates for the state, and I get paid to hold inmates from the federal government,” Daley said. “And my contract with the federal government is better than the state, but it’s a negotiated contract. So my position is if I can bring money into Campbell County and offset local taxpayer dollars, then I’m going to do that.”
