In the News

By Alexei Koseff

A fight for more oversight of federal immigration detention facilities that began during President Donald Trump’s first term has erupted again as his administration tries to block congressional access amid mounting outrage over the president’s mass deportation campaign.

More than a dozen members of Congress, including five from California, are suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for preventing them from conducting unannounced inspections of detention facilities since last summer’s enforcement surge in Los Angeles. With more immigrants now being held than ever before, they say widespread allegations of inhumane and illegal conditions — including a lack of food and water, freezing cells without anywhere to lie down and violations of religious liberties — demand their attention.

A federal judge has sided with the lawmakers twice, issuing another ruling this week temporarily suspending the Department of Homeland Security policy after the agency attempted to work around a previous court order to allow the visits. But it remains to be seen whether the lawsuit can curb a defiant Trump administration, which has aggressively resisted efforts to restrain its agenda since returning to power a year ago.

“What they say and what they do are two very, very different things. And the only way that we can be sure of the truth is to be present and is to be able to walk through these facilities,” said Rep. Norma Torres, an Ontario (San Bernardino County) Democrat who is one of the plaintiffs. “That is the only way that I can tell you the food is not expired, because we can’t believe a word that they say.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions, including whether it would comply with the ruling or challenge it.
In an internal memo earlier this month, which limited congressional access to detention facilities again weeks after the court first ruled for the lawmakers, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote that advance notice is necessary to “ensure adequate protection for Members of Congress, congressional staff, detainees, and ICE employees alike.”

“Unannounced visits require pulling ICE officers away from their normal duties,” she wrote. “Moreover, there is an increasing trend of replacing legitimate oversight activities with circus-like publicity stunts, all of which creates a chaotic environment with heightened emotions.

The lawsuit was an early step in Democrats’ mounting push to rein in an agency that Americans increasingly believe is out of control. It has gained urgency as a battle over ICE funding takes center stage in Washington, D.C., where Congress and the Trump administration are currently negotiating over potential accountability measures, such as a ban on agents wearing masks, to avoid an extended partial government shutdown.

But it’s also an extension of a clash that began in 2018, when the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy of separating families that arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border generated enormous political backlash and members of Congress were turned away from detention facilities. After Democrats took the House majority the following year, they inserted language in the Department of Homeland Security funding bill giving themselves authority to enter any federal facility holding immigrants, without prior notice. It has been renewed annually.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat whose downtown Los Angeles district has an ICE field office that was the focus of raucous protests against an immigration enforcement surge last summer, said the spot inspections are necessary to prevent the federal government from presenting only a sanitized version of what’s happening.

He said members visit the detention centers with a checklist of what to look for: how many people a facility can hold, whether there is access to medical personnel and prescriptions. They also help constituents locate family members who have been detained. Sometimes they seek to verify claims from detainees about illegal treatment, including that they are held in processing centers for days before being moved to proper facilities and that the Trump administration is again separating families to pressure immigrants to self-deport.

“They have an agenda, which is they want to have massive deportation of undocumented immigrants,” said Gomez, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “They don’t care who it hurts. They don’t care what they break. They don’t care what rights are violated. And they will do anything to hide what they’re doing."

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