The Department of Homeland Security has issued new guidance for lawmakers seeking to inspect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities after a series of headline-grabbing incidents in which officials have confronted federal agents and even been handcuffed.
The new protocol asks lawmakers to give three days’ notice before visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities and explicitly requires a day’s notice for their staff.
By law, members of Congress are allowed to make unannounced visits to ICE facilities.
The guidance also states that “ICE Field Offices are not detention facilities and fall outside” the legal statute guiding congressional oversight visits, language which suggests members may be blocked from them in the future.
Also noted are terms for the cancelling or termination of a visit. “ICE retains the sole and unreviewable discretion to deny a request or otherwise cancel, reschedule or terminate a tour or visit,” the protocol reads, under conditions like “1) an emergency arises; 2) the safety, security, and orderly operations of the facility are potentially jeopardized; 3) any violation(s) of this Protocol occur; 4) any other identified operational concerns exist; 5) facility management or other ICE officials deem it appropriate to do so.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called the move “unprecedented” and “an affront to the Constitution and federal law” in a statement on X.
Democrats have made liberal use of their oversight privileges in light of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and mass deportation push. Wisconsin Reps. Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore, for instance, visited the state’s sole ICE facility without incident in early June.
But a number of Democrats have had issues. Just this week, New York Reps. Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler were barred by ICE from entering a detention area. Earlier this month, Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Adriano Espaillat were able to enter the building’s lobby but unable to gain entry to where detained people were held.
And New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted on federal charges after an incident with immigration officers outside of a detention center in Newark in May. She has been charged with two counts of “assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with a federal officer” and one count of “assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officers.”
McIver has denied the charges, and said in a post on X that the “indictment is no more justified than the original charges” and that “the facts of the case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation.”
DHS more broadly has also had conflict with Democrats during Trump’s second term.
California Sen. Alex Padilla was forced out of a press conference hosted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week. Video showed him falling over after a scuffle with federal agents. He was later handcuffed. Congressional Democrats were horrified and told NOTUS that “the violence of the arrest very much crosses a line.”
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Nuha Dolby is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.