Durbin Presses ICE Acting Director On Denying Members Of Congress Access To Facilities

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons on denials of Members of Congress to visit ICE facilities and meet with detainees, including multiple attempts by Durbin to visit the Broadview ICE Facility in Illinois.
In a letter to the Acting ICE Director, Durbin began by admonishing the Trump Administration for impeding on Congress’s oversight authority, writing:“I write to object to your unprecedented, unlawful, and unacceptable decision to deny Members of Congress access to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Broadview Processing Center in Broadview, Illinois. The Trump Administration has increasingly restricted access to facilities used to detain noncitizens, including by denying Members of Congress access to the Broadview ICE Facility. I urge you to comply with the law and reverse this decision, allowing me and my colleagues to conduct desperately needed oversight of the Broadview ICE Facility.”
Durbin then cited relevant legal framework authorizing and requiring such oversight, includingMcGrain v. Daugherty,Watkins v. United States,Barenblatt v. United States, and language included in appropriations laws.
Durbin then outlinedunlawfullimitationson congressional oversightimposedby the Trump Administration, writing:“In June, ICE issued an updated guidance memorandum requiring Members of Congress to give at least 72 hours’ notice before an immigration facility visit. Since then, ICE appears to have further restricted its policy through a statement on the ICE Congressional Relations website, which imposes a seven-day advance notice policy, with exceptions at the discretion of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem. Most recently, ICE has denied Members of Congress and congressional staff access to facilities due to the government shutdown. In addition to these restrictions, ICE has regularly prevented or delayed congressional access to processing facilities used to detain noncitizens for prolonged periods, even as detainees report squalid conditions, overcrowding, inhumane treatment, and lengthy stays.”
Durbin continued by highlightingconcerningreportsabouttheBroadviewICE Facility, writing:“The Broadview ICE Facility is no exception. Although designed as a short-term service processing facility, this year ICE has expanded the maximum number of hours that noncitizens could be held at Broadview and other processing centers … in September, 143 individuals were detained at Broadview for two days or more … An American citizen detained during peaceful protests reported that immigration detainees are ‘jammed packed’ into rooms designed for short-term processing … Detainees report being provided little food, water, and hygiene products and having limited access to medication … The facility has been repeatedly described as a ‘black hole’. Attorneys and family members alike cannot reach, respectively, their clients and loved ones in the facility; detainees are simultaneously prevented from contacting anyone until they have been transferred to another facility, often days later. These concerns have only grown as DHS has used the facility to support its reckless and dangerous immigration enforcement operations in Illinois.”
After citing two previous visits to Broadview ICE Facility in 2013 and 2014, as well as regular visits to other DHS facilities under Democratic and Republican Administrations, Durbin writes:“The current Trump Administration is the only Administration that has repeatedly denied me and other Members of Congress access to a detention facility. In fact, I have requested to visit the Broadview ICE Facility and meet with detainees there four times. In each instance, I have been denied access.”
Durbin concluded with an appeal to follow the law and allow for oversight visits, writing:“ICE officials’ attempts to impede oversight of the Broadview ICE Facility are unconstitutional. They also raise serious questions as to what ICE is attempting to hide at this facility, and as a duly elected representative of the people of Illinois, it is my job to find out. I urge you to grant Members of Congress prompt access to the Broadview ICE Facility and provide the American people transparency into the conditions there.”
For a PDF copy of the letter to Acting Director Lyons, clickhere.
In response to the Trump Administration’s surge in federal law enforcement in Chicago and continuous threats to deploy the military in the area, Durbin has taken a number of steps to push back on these unlawful actions carried out by DHS and Secretary Noem under the direction of President Trump.
Durbin has taken the following actions to push back on the Trump Administration’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” and “Operation At Large”:
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