Yves here. It’s rich to hear ICE officials carry on sanctimoniously about the importance of rounding up individuals they deem to criminals when they are the Administration’s most visibly rogue agency.
So why, pray tell, is ICE again persistently breaking the law, aside from the fact that this is the Trump Administration’s modus operandi? This behavior, of denying Congressmembers access to ICE facilities, as required by law, is a defiance twofer: making up their own rules and raising the middle finger to another branch of government.
It’s not hard to surmise that this brazen conduct is not just about ICE flexing its authoritarian muscle. It comes close to an admission that the ICE detention facilities fall below Federal incarceration standards (which is an extremely low bar). One of the big elements of rule by Trump is the routine use of cruelty as an intimidation tactic, and that the sadists got off on that. Mind you, this sort of thing is a proud tradition, but in recent decades, we’ve tried to keep it below the radar and practice it mainly on foreigners, witness the CIA’s “black” torture sites.
ICE now says it won’t allow members of Congress or their staffs to visit immigration detention facilities unless they provide a week of advance notice.
But federal law says members of Congress do not need “to provide prior notice” to make an oversight visit. pic.twitter.com/1UbILecaUi
— Michael Gold (@migold) June 19, 2025
The Los Angeles Times confirms that ICE’s attempt to limit Congressional access is illegal:
The day after immigration raids began in Los Angeles, Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) and three other members of Congress were denied entry to the immigrant detention facility inside the Roybal Federal Building.
The lawmakers were attempting an unannounced inspection, a common and long-standing practice under congressional oversight powers.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said too many protesters were present on June 7 and officers deployed chemical agents multiple times. In a letter later to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Torres said she ended up in the emergency room for respiratory treatment. She also said the protest had been small and peaceful.
Torres is one of many Democratic members of Congress, from states including California, New York and Illinois, who have been denied entry to immigrant detention facilities in recent weeks.Advertisement
James Townsend, director of the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University in Michigan, said the denials mark a profound — and illegal — shift from past practice.
“Denying members of Congress access to facilities is a direct assault on our system of checks and balances,” he said. “What members of Congress are trying to do now is to be part of a proud bipartisan tradition of what we like to call oversight by showing up.”
Subsequent attempts by lawmakers to inspect the facility inside the Roybal Building have also been unsuccessful….
The statute also states that nothing in that section “may be construed to require a Member of Congress to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility” for the purpose of conducting oversight. Under the statute, federal officials may require at least 24 hours notice for a visit by congressional staff — but not members themselves.
Underscoring the key point in the Los Angeles Times account:
The law directly bars ICE from requiring prior notice before a Member of Congress can do a surprise inspection of an immigration detention facility. https://t.co/brECDxuKd1 pic.twitter.com/ei2kbdwFq4
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) June 18, 2025
Even conservative outlet Reason criticized ICE’s new edict:
Incidentally, it’s perfectly legal for members of Congress to visit ICE detention facilities, even unannounced. And ICE’s attempt to circumvent that requirement threatens the constitutional system of checks and balances.
The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which funded the government through September 2024, specified that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may not “prevent…a Member of Congress” or one of their employees “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens” or to modify the facility in advance of such a visit. It also clarified that the DHS cannot “require a Member of Congress to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility.”
ICE’s new guidance tries to get around this by stipulating that “ICE Field Offices are not detention facilities and fall outside of the [law’s] requirements.” Nevertheless, it adds that “while Member[s] of Congress are not required to provide advance notice for visits to ICE detention facilities, ICE requires a minimum of 24-hours’ notice for visits by congressional staff” (emphasis in the original). Further, “visit request[s] are not considered actionable until receipt of the request is acknowledged” by ICE.
The new rules also stipulate that visiting members of Congress may not bring in cellphones or recording devices, they must be escorted by ICE staff at all times, and they may not “have any physical or verbal contact with any person in ICE detention facilities unless previously requested and specifically approved by ICE Headquarters.”
In recent weeks, Democratic lawmakers have tried to enter ICE facilities, only to be turned away or threatened with imprisonment. Last week, authorities charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D–N.J.) with three felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers. McIver and other lawmakers visited Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility in Newark last month. A scuffle apparently ensued when authorities arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespassing, though those charges were later dropped.
This week, four members of Congress who visited the ICE Processing Center in Broadview, Illinois, were apparently denied access when they arrived. “We have reports that immigrants are being detained here without access to their attorneys, sleeping on the floor and without food,” Rep. Chuy Garcia (D–Ill.), one of the members in attendance, alleged in a post on X.
These stores also confirm that Congresscritters have made repeated efforts to exercise their oversight powers at ICE facilities and have been rebuffed….far more often than the press appears to have noted. I trust an activist group is keeping a tally with names, dates, and locations.
For instance, how many of you knew about this incident with Representative Judy Chu?
Earlier today, I went to inspect the Metropolitan Detention Center after 6 Pasadena residents were detained. ICE agents even brandished a gun at a young man just for filming. I was denied entry despite my legal right as a Member of Congress to inspect DHS facilities. This is… pic.twitter.com/wnVqUz4ral
— Judy Chu (@RepJudyChu) June 19, 2025
However, I don’t know how Congress gets out of its toothless position. Someone on Twitter suggested they bring Federal marshals. But that’s a non-starter since they work for the Administration.
By Gwynne Hogan, Senior Reporter for THE CITY. Originally published at THE CITY on June 18, 2025
Two members of Congress were refused entry to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention areas inside 26 Federal Plaza Wednesday morning, despite rules laid out by Congress allowing members to conduct unannounced visits for oversight purposes.
ICE’s explanation: Those staying at the facility, some for nights at a time, are “in transit” and not actually in federal detention.
The attempted visit by Reps. Dan Goldman (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn) and Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) comes after Reps. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn/Queens) and Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan/The Bronx) were rebuffed by ICE earlier this month.
Observed by a gaggle of reporters in the building’s lobby, Bill Joyce, the deputy director of the New York ICE field office, took questions from the representatives — and delivered terse answers that revealed people have been held on the 10th floor of the federal building, sometimes for nights at a time, without anywhere to sleep other than benches or the floor.
Spokespeople for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In the back-and-forth with Joyce, Goldman and Nadler pressed for specifics on how immigrants snatched by masked agents in the hallways of immigration court following routine proceedings were treated in the hours after their arrest.
“Do any of the individuals who are processed here spend the night here?” Goldman asked.
“They have spent the night,” Joyce replied.
“So they’re held here overnight sometimes, do they have proper nighttime facilities like beds?” Nadler wondered.
“We do not have beds,” Joyce said.
When asked where they stayed Joyce only repeated “on the 10th floor.”
When the representatives asked if that meant on the literal floor, Joyce added, “or benches, we have.”
Joyce added people detained inside 26 Federal Plaza have access to food and bathrooms, but there are no medical services on site.
Concerns have been mounting for weeks about conditions inside the building as ICE has dramatically ramped up its arrests in the New York area in part by staking out immigration courthouses in Lower Manhattan.
People arrested from three courthouses are thought to be consolidated at 26 Federal Plaza before they can be sent out to other detention centers, like the Nassau County jail, where they can be held for up to 72 hours, or the recently opened Delaney Hall in Newark.
As the number of ICE arrests has surged in recent weeks, people have reported spending several days at 26 Federal Plaza before being sent to even further away facilities in Louisiana and Texas.
On Wednesday Joyce conceded they were having trouble transferring people right away to other locations because of the surge in arrests.
“I’m sure you are well aware we’re approaching capacity,” he said.
Nadler and Goldman had requested a visit in advance via letter but received a denial from a staffer at ICE’s Office of Congressional Relations on Tuesday, saying the agency didn’t have to let them in because ICE, “does not house aliens at field offices; rather these are working offices where ERO personnel process aliens to make custody determinations based on the specific circumstances of each case.”
Federal law allows members of Congress access to any facility used by the Department of Homeland Security to “detain or otherwise house aliens.”
But during his conversation with the congressmembers Wednesday, Joyce at first said ICE was “housing them until they can be detained,” but then said detainees were “in transit until we have a place for them to go. They’re going from here to someplace else because they’re not staying here.”
Nadler pushed back, “If people are detained for several days, it is a detention facility, whatever you choose to call it.”
Miffed by semantics, Nadler pressed Joyce for more specifics.
“Getting away from your absurd misinterpretation of the statute — why won’t you let us see this? Are you ashamed of what’s there? Why won’t you?” Nadler asked.
“Because we were told not to,” Joyce conceded, saying that the orders had come down from ICE headquarters, and that the congressmembers should appeal the decision to them.
“Well, thank you for your time, we understand you’re following orders,” Goldman said, leaving the building with Nadler shortly afterward. At a press conference after the visit, Goldman and Nadler said the two are considering their next steps, including potential legal action.
The odd exchange, in which Joyce was wearing a button-down shirt featuring a cartoon toucan drinking a beer, came a day after another chaotic scene inside the building. (Asked about his odd choice in attire, Joyce said he bought the shirt on eBay because he “thought it looked nice.”)
On Tuesday, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was detained for hours while trying to escort a man out of immigration court. He was released after several hours with no charges following an intervention by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Lander was the latest elected official to face arrest during confrontations over President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies.
Goldman and Nadler both slammed Lander’s arrest Wednesday, with Goldman calling it “part of a pattern of overaggressive authoritarian tactics that clearly has been ordered from above.”
“Given [how] these agents have treated elected officials, we’re very concerned about how they are treating immigrants behind closed doors,” Goldman said.
This entry was posted in Globalization, Guest Post, Legal, Politics, Social policy, Social values on June 20, 2025.
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