Congressional Democrats say the criminal charges filed against Rep. LaMonica McIver will not deter them: They say they’ll be increasing their visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.
“Donald Trump doesn’t want us conducting oversight at ICE facilities like these great members of Congress were doing,” Rep. Greg Casar said Tuesday at a press conference. “He wants to intimidate us out of doing that, and in our meeting, we decided we’re just about to go into a lot more oversight visits at ICE facilities.”
This is the first time Democrats have announced a formal effort to increase their oversight visits to these facilities, increasing the possibility for more legal conflict between the Trump administration and Democratic lawmakers.
Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced charges Monday against McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, alleging she “assaulted, impeded and interfered with law enforcement” during a visit to Delaney Hall Detention Facility on May 10. The Department of Homeland Security’s complaint alleges that McIver “slammed her forearm into the body” of an officer while attempting to stop the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was also present at the facility.
Members of Congress, congressional member delegations and congressional staff delegations “are afforded special access to ICE facilities,” according to ICE’s visitation guidelines, though agencies can turn lawmakers away for making impromptu visits.
During the first Trump administration, lawmakers attempted to visit detention facilities in Florida and South Texas, among other places, to highlight the first Trump administration’s family separation policy, and were often turned away.
A group of Democrats visited two detention facilities in Louisiana last month, where international students Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder, and Rümeysa Öztürk were in custody after they were both arrested by ICE. Khalil remains in detention at the facility.
Casar told NOTUS members will primarily focus on facilities that have faced reports of inadequate medical care and other subpar conditions.
“We’re going to be looking at some of the facilities where we’ve heard reports of some of the worst conditions … where some of these private corporations who donate enormously to the Republican Party are reaping in big money contracts from Trump,” he said.
Privately owned facilities dominate ICE’s detention landscape, and the Trump administration has pushed for more, prompting outcry from Democrats and advocates. Many of the centers have come under fire across administrations regarding preventable deaths, subpar medical care and poor conditions.
Democratic members in both chambers denounced the reopening of Delaney Hall, which was shuttered in 2017 but reopened a month into Trump’s second presidency.
Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez also visited the ICE facility, which is owned by private contractor GEO Group. Conservative group Judicial Watch filed a congressional ethics complaint against the three members after the visit.
The members’ visits also prompted criticism from many Republicans in Congress.
“There’s talk about censure,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters last week. “I think there needs to be an appropriate measure taken.”
Rep. Mike Lawler said last week he’s heard conversations about votes to strip the members of their committee assignments and to expel the members, though he added that he doesn’t see “how you get a two-thirds vote for expulsion” and that he’s withholding his personal opinion until he gets more information about the situation.
Republicans on a House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing that lasted more than two hours on Tuesday where they examined “threats to ICE operations.”
Meanwhile, Democrats have largely rallied behind McIver.
“If you want to get to LaMonica, you’re going to have to go through a hell of a lot of us first,” Rep. Yvette Clarke, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said at Tuesday’s press conference, where about 50 party members gathered to decry the charges announced against McIver.
It’s not the first time Democrats have made in-person action on immigration a central part of their strategy during the second Trump administration. Sen. Chris Van Hollen visited a mega-prison in El Salvador to see Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was erroneously deported, and other Democrats also said they thought about traveling there.
These efforts, Casar told NOTUS, are part of Democrats’ “legal right.”
“Trump wants us to threaten Congresswoman McIver because he wants us to do less oversight,” he said. “And I think the only rational response is for us to go and do more.”
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Shifra Dayak is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.