DHS Tightens Access Rules for Lawmakers, Congressional Staff at ICE Facilities

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued new guidance for both congressional staff and members of Congress to access U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.

The updated protocol, released by ICE this week, requires congressional staff to provide a minimum of 24 hours’ advance notice before visiting ICE detention centers and mandates prior coordination for any visits to ICE field offices, which the agency says are not covered by congressional oversight protections under federal law.

While the new policy acknowledges that Section 527 of the FY2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act protects lawmakers’ right to visit ICE detention facilities without notice, it outright blocks access to ICE field offices for members of Congress and congressional staff unless pre-approved by DHS.

“ICE Field Offices are not detention facilities and fall outside of the Sec. 527 requirements,” the guidelines state.

There will still be opportunities for lawmakers to arrange visits to ICE field offices, although they will have to submit requests at least 72 hours in advance. Only those who are approved for visitor engagement will be allowed to participate.

Further, even though lawmakers have the Section 527 right to visit detention facilities without notice, DHS reserves the right to temporarily deny access based on “exigent circumstances,” such as operational conditions or security considerations.

The new policy comes in the wake of ICE facility visits by Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks, some of which became confrontational.

In May, three Democratic members of Congress; Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey; and a group of protesters “stormed the gate” of an ICE detention center in Newark, according to a DHS spokesperson, who accused them of endangering public safety. One of the lawmakers, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), said that she and the others were exercising their “lawful oversight responsibilities” and accused federal agents of escalating the situation.

Some Democratic lawmakers criticized the access restrictions, saying that they violate federal law and undermine congressional oversight.

“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visits to ICE offices across the country,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a June 18 statement.

Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said on June 18 that they were denied entry to an ICE field office in New York after providing advance notice.

“If people are detained there, it’s a detention center,” Nadler told CBS. “Under these statutes, we have [an] absolute right, under Section 527, to inspect detention centers—a right that was denied to us.”

Goldman and Nadler said they were both concerned about reports that people were being detained overnight in poor conditions at the ICE field office they were trying to enter.

The guidelines say that field offices are not detention facilities but only places where aliens are processed, and so they are not subject to the Section 527 requirement.

The Epoch Times has reached out to DHS for comment.