WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement agency on Wednesday recognized the right of members of Congress to visit detention facilities, even unannounced, while the department’s secretary said members of Congress should have requested a tour of an immigration detention facility in New Jersey where a skirmish broke out last week.
The slightly divergent comments by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, came in separate congressional committee hearings Wednesday.
Three members of Congress have said that they went to the facility to inspect it as a matter of congressional oversight and that federal agents escalated the situation by arresting the mayor of Newark, who was also trying to enter. DHS has blamed the lawmakers, accusing them of trying to break into the detention center.
Noem took a narrower view
Noem dived straight into the brewing controversy during her opening statement.
”What happened on May 9 was not oversight. It was a political stunt,” she said. DHS later followed up on Noem’s remarks with a news release once again accusing the representatives of storming the facility and “reminding” members of Congress of the visitation rules.
Lyons addressed the issue as well after being questioned by Rep. Lauren Underwood, a Democrat from Illinois.
“We do acknowledge that any member of Congress has the right to show up for an inspection at one of our facilities in their oversight capability,” Lyons said. He also said that while those visits are “unannounced,” members need to show identification and go through screening and can’t bring contraband.
By law, members of Congress are allowed to visit ICE facilities and don’t have to give any notice, although congressional staff members need to give 24 hours’ notice.
Federal prosecutors charged Newark Mayor Ras Baraka with trespassing after agents arrested him outside the fence of the Delaney Hall detention center on Friday. The interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey says Baraka, a Democrat who is running for governor, ignored warnings to leave while he was at the 1,000-bed ICE facility with three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation.
The arrest escalated into a brief but tense confrontation in the parking lot that included the members of Congress and federal agents, some of whom wore masks.
The representatives — Reps. LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr. — have said they went to the facility to inspect it as a matter of congressional oversight.
“We were able to get in, speak to detainees, check out the facilities, and make sure everything was OK there,” Rep. Watson Coleman told CNN in an interview Sunday that also included her two New Jersey colleagues. “We were there almost two hours before the confrontation took place, but ICE kept giving us the runaround and kept saying that they needed to talk to someone else.”
Watson Coleman spokesperson Ned Cooper has said the three lawmakers went there unannounced because they planned to inspect the site, not take a scheduled tour.
ICE is key to Trump’s promises of mass deportations
DHS and ICE are integral to President Donald Trump’s goal of carrying out mass deportations.
Lyons defended ICE’s performance, saying his agents were finally able to do the job they signed up for. He said the agency is focusing on “the worst of the worst,” and Homeland Security touts daily the arrests they’ve made of people convicted of crimes in the U.S. or alleged gang members. But critics dispute that, saying the agency is sweeping up people who pose no threat in their push to increase deportations.
Lyons said there had been nine deaths in custody, and the agency investigates all of them.
Republicans are planning to pour billions of dollars into immigration enforcement with more money for deportation officers, detention space and removal flights.
The plan aims to remove 1 million immigrants annually and house 100,000 people in detention centers. It calls for 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and investigators.
ICE houses people it arrests at a network of detention centers around the country, including government-run facilities, privately contracted facilities and local jails.
Lyons also said the agency has about 3,500 beds available at Fort Bliss in Texas and is currently holding 69 detainees there. He said money to pay for detaining those people at Fort Bliss and other military bases would come out of the Defense Department’s budget.
Asked about some of the bottlenecks when it comes to removing people from the country, Lyons mentioned the need for more airplanes and charter companies to remove people as well as more ICE lawyers to help them deal with backlogged immigration courts.
