A dozen Democratic members of Congress who have been blocked from making oversight visits at immigration detention centers filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration that seeks to ensure they are granted entry into the facilities, even without prior notice.
The lawsuit, filed in the District of Columbia’s federal court, said the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are obstructing Congressional oversight of the centers at a time when there’s been an increase in ICE arrests, with reports of raids across the country and people taken into custody at immigration courts.
By law, members of Congress are allowed to visit ICE facilities and don’t have to give any notice, but increasingly, the members have been stopped at the door. ICE officials have said a new rule requires a seven-day waiting period and they prohibit entry to the ICE field offices. The lawsuit asks the court for full and immediate access to all ICE facilities.
ICE Director Todd Lyons told a congressional committee in May that he recognized the right of members of Congress to visit detention facilities, even unannounced. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told a different committee that members of Congress should have requested a tour of an immigration detention facility in New Jersey where a skirmish broke out in May.
