Congressman JOE Morelle Offers Amendment to Restrict Construction of NEW ICE, CBP Facilities

Image June 11, 2026 Press Release Amendment comes as direct response to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) unwillingness to allow community input on new facility in Rochester’s Kenneth B. Keating Federal Building Amendment was rejected in the dead of night by Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee (Washington, D.C.)—Today, Congressman Joe Morelle offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2027 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill to require public transparency, community input, and approval from state and local leaders before constructing new ICE or CBP detention facilities in Rochester’s Kenneth B. Keating Federal Building. Congressman Morelle’s remarks on his amendment are available below as delivered: “Earlier today, I talked about, and I’ll be relatively brief given the hour, that we have a Federal Building in downtown Rochester; right on the main drag near City Hall. Heavily Traveled. “It has a courthouse in it—federal courthouse—both civil and criminal, a bankruptcy court, has a number of government agencies including congressional offices and Senate offices. “And a daycare, which is used by not only the employees in the building but people in the community. “And recently it was made public that Border Patrol is going to put a detention facility—a number of cells—no comment, no communication with Members of Congress, no public input, no comment for the public, no consultation with local governments. Highly inappropriate. “I had asked earlier, the amendment, which apparently I withdrew and hope that we would be able to reach some accommodation. To suggest that this is inappropriate, particularly at a time when the public, the public in my community, and I suspect the public in my places around this country, have lost complete faith or trust that ICE is doing what the President indicated that he would do—to go after ‘criminals, murderers, and rapists.’ “He always said, ‘the worst of the worst.’ “I think I recounted going out to a detention facility in Batavia, New York, not far from where I live, to tour the facility and meet with a gentleman by the name of Omar Ramos-Jimenez, who has been detained now for six months. “He has a work permit. He’s been in the United States for 30 years, has raised his family here, two children born in the United States who are citizens. This gentle, sweet man who wants to go home, but he doesn’t mean home to Mexico, where he hasn’t been for over 30 years. “He has a work permit, a work permit that will go until 2030. And this gentle man, and I went and spent time with him, I asked him what I could tell his community. And as I was leaving he said, ‘well, one thing I can’t… I can shake your hand as I’m leaving, but I can’t even hug my children and my family when they come to see me. We’re separated by a glass wall. All I want to do is go home and live my life.’ “And it’s heartbreaking, literally heartbreaking. “So this lack of trust, people see these stories and they see what happened in Minneapolis, and I’m so sorry still to the folks who represent that community. All over the country, they see it. “This isn’t ‘the worst of the worst.’ These are people just trying to do as so many in our families did: to come to this country—the greatest country in… maybe in civilization—the ‘shining city on the hill.’ They want to come and have a better life for themselves and for their children, and, frankly, that’s what the American Dream was all about. “I thought that was the… we always talk about the mosaic. You know, it’s the ‘great melting pot.’ Boy, how far we have come. “And I think often of Ronald Reagan, in his last speech to America, talking about how important immigration was. I mean, that’s how far, respectfully, your party has veered from that. “In any case, people in my community are angry; they’re frustrated. And so, the amendment effectively just asks for sort of simple things you’d expect from your government: that it report to you, that it report to Members of Congress, that it give some indication that they’ve considered how detrimental this would be; how much of an imposition it would be, how it’s not appropriate to be in the same facility, literally across the hall from a daycare center were 40-50 young children are. “If we’re bringing in the ‘worst of the worst,’ this is not the place for them to be, adjacent to a daycare center. “So, I’d ask consideration of the amendment. It relates now… the original amendment was within 500 feet of a daycare center. This is just, specifically, for the facility in Rochester, to ask that they basically follow rules that you’d expect any government would do: public comment, consultation with local governments, go through and consult with Members of Congress and make them be aware of what the implications are and to make sure that they’ve consider what those implications are. “So, I’d urge acceptance of the amendment. And I know that the chair had offered to have a conversation. I don’t think we got very far with it, but I do appreciate that. And with that, I’ll yield back.” Video footage is available and can be viewed here . This amendment contains provisions of Congressman Morelle’s Respect Our Communities (ROC) Act , which he introduced earlier this year . ### Issues : Uplifting Our Families