Immigration and Customs Enforcement has unveiled new restrictions on members of Congress and their staff members for visiting immigration facilities, following a series of tense clashes between federal agents and Democratic officials attempting to perform oversight visits amid the Trump administration’s push to rapidly arrest and deport millions.
While members of Congress can show up unannounced for inspections at immigration detention centers, the new rules specify that legislators must provide at least 72 hours of advanced notice before visiting other ICE facilities like field offices, the first point of contact for many detained migrants.
The rules also say members of congressional staff must provide a day’s notice when visiting detention facilities.
Democrats criticized the new rules.
“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visits to ICE offices across the country, which are holding migrants – and sometimes even U.S. citizens – for days at a time,” Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said in a statement to The Hill. “They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie.”
The policy comes after a series of high-profile incidents in which Democrats accused the Trump administration of blocking them from conducting lawful oversight, while the White House alleges lawmakers aren’t following proper protocols and are causing security risks.
Most recently, New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was handcuffed by federal agents as he attempted to observe a federal immigration court in Manhattan on Tuesday.
The former council member says his brief arrest was an alarming erosion of usual norms.
“I am happy to report I am just fine. I lost a button,” he said after the confrontation. “The rule of law is not fine. And our constitutional democracy is not fine.”
Last week, Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed and pinned to the floor by federal agents as he interrupted a press conference from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
At the briefing, which came at the height of Los Angeles-area protests against the administration’s immigration policies, Noem was in the middle of saying federal authorities would “liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
Padilla, in a floor speech on Tuesday, said the comments inspired him to speak up.
“When I heard something so blatantly un-American from the Secretary of Homeland Security, a cabinet official, of course, I was compelled, both as a senator and as an American, to speak up, but before I could even get out my question, I was physically and aggressively forced out of the room,” he said.
The Trump administration accuses Padilla of being aggressive and failing to promptly identify himself or comply with security officers’ commands.
Last week, New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver was indicted on federal charges over an incident in May, in which members of Congress, protesters, ICE agents, and the Democratic mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, pushed and shoved outside of an ICE facility in New Jersey, after officials declined to let Baraka join an inspection of the building.
McIver has called the charges “a brazen attempt at political intimidation,” while Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba said in a statement that conduct like McIver’s alleged actions “endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve.”
Previous federal charges against Baraka over the May incident were dropped, a reversal a federal judge called an “embarrassing retraction.”
Even with the new restrictions, the issue of detention center access looks set to remain.
On Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers in Illinois and New York both criticized the administration for allegedly denying them access to ICE facilities.
“ICE just blocked @RepDanGoldman and me from inspecting their detention center at 26 Federal Plaza, where migrants are reportedly being forced to sleep on the floor for days at a time,” Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York wrote on X. “Congress has a duty to conduct oversight, and the American people deserve transparency. ICE doesn’t get to lie about the nature of this facility to dodge oversight and hide behind masks while doing it. This is completely unacceptable, and we will not back down.”
Also today, Rep. Chuy Garcia alleged he was denied entry for an oversight visit to the Broadview ICE Processing Center.
Democrats and immigration observers have alleged a decline in conditions inside ICE facilities since Trump took office and began pushing for a record pace of deportations.
At least nine people have died in ICE custody since Trump took office, quickly outpacing the data from the worst year of deaths under the Biden administration.
Federal officials say ICE agents have faced a spike in threats in recent months amid widespread protests over immigration raids, justifying the use of face masks and other security precautions.
Protesters have also targeted ICE facilities for protests, including a demonstration in Portland over the weekend that police declared a riot and used crowd-control munitions to disperse.
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