A federal judge has ruled members of Congress are not required to give advance notice when visiting ICE facilities.
A dozen House lawmakers filed suit earlier this year in response to an ICE memo requiring members of Congress to provide at least a week’s notice if they plan to visit a site where detainees are held. The suit argues the new policy goes against a U.S. statute that guarantees lawmakers the right to make unannounced visits to facilities for oversight.
“The administration very clearly violated the law, which was agreed to by the president, agreed to by both Houses of Congress, establishing the legal right for members of Congress to access these facilities,” said Peter Kenny, vice president of litigation and investigations with American Oversight. The watchdog organization is one of the groups representing the lawmakers.
Kenny says requiring advance notice limits the ability to do true oversight — something lawmakers noted during the first Trump administration, when they were not given immediate access to detention sites.
“In some cases, members or their staffs observed that facilities were being changed, painted over, the conditions were being improved between the time they were requesting to view the facility, and the time they were being given access,” he said.
Kenny says the latest ruling upends the ICE memo and restores the ability to make unannounced visits.
The Justice Department did not respond to questions about whether the government will appeal. The Department of Homeland Security said the new, advance notice policy was needed amid a “1,150% surge in assaults, disruptions and obstructions to enforcement.”
Since the beginning of this year, the agency has reported seeing an increase of between 500% and 1,150% in assaults or other disruptions of ICE enforcement and personnel, but hasn’t responded to questions about how those increases are calculated.
-
The city of Phoenix has launched a multilingual platform where residents can report concerns or incidents related to federal law enforcement activity within the city. The Federal Enforcement Complaint Reporting Portal is available at the Community Transparency Initiative webpage. -
U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego called on his fellow lawmakers to reform the nation’s immigration laws to protect long-time undocumented residents who were brought to the country as children. -
Pinal County leaders say the top local prosecutor having partnered with ICE is weakening his office’s ability to try local cases. -
Federal agents are investigating the deaths of six people thought to be immigrants found inside a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard near the border with Mexico in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday as a "potential human smuggling event." -
Border czar Tom Homan said at a Phoenix expo on Tuesday that he’ll “flood” states and cities with ICE agents if they try to resist deportation policies.
