DHS issues new guidance for lawmakers visiting ICE facilities after tense confrontations

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Politics

Published 10:16 AM EDT, Thu June 19, 2025


CNN — After a spate of tense encounters involving lawmakers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, the Department of Homeland Security is asking members of Congress to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance.

Under the annual appropriations act, lawmakers are allowed to enter any DHS facilities “used to detain or otherwise house aliens” to inspect them as part of their oversight duties. The act outlines that they are not required “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility.”

The agency’s new memo also seeks to differentiate ICE field offices from detention facilities, noting that “ICE Field Offices are not detention facilities” and therefore do not fall under the appropriations act provision. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, called the move “unprecedented” and an “affront to the Constitution and Federal law.”

“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visits to ICE offices across the country, which are holding migrants – and sometimes even U.S. citizens – for days at a time. They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie,” Thompson said in a statement. Previous DHS language for lawmaker visitations said “ICE will comply with the law and accommodate Members seeking to visit/tour an ICE detention facility for the purpose of conducting oversight.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/19/politics/dhs-ice-visits-congress-lawmakers

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Gee, wonder if they need 72 hours to make themselves appear decent.

[Bev54]

7. Not sure who is left to clean up the place or are they going to whip the detainees like slaves.

I would have, in the past, said unbelievable, but no longer. I do not understand how everybody else just goes about their business with no concern.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. These rules are void

[maxsolomon]

2. Send out 72-hour notices to every ICE facility EVERY DAY.

Call their bluff.

[aggiesal]

3. I think the Representatives should decline that agreement. ...

and just tell them we can arrive at any time we want.

If you don't open the facility, you'll be violating law.
I'm sure there is a law written somewhere.

[boonecreek]

4. Malicious compliance.

I love it!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Noem makes a chilling change to the rules for members of Congress visiting ICE facilities after a series of scandals

These changes are illegal

Link to tweet

BREAKING: MAGA Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem makes a chilling change to the rules for members of Congress visiting ICE facilities after a series of scandals — demands that they give 72 hours advance notice before arriving.

This should be setting off every alarm bell for students of history...

“Kristi Noem’s new policy to block congressional oversight of ICE facilities is not only unprecedented, it is an affront to the Constitution and Federal law," stated Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson.

"Noem is now not only attempting to restrict when Members can visit, but completely blocking access to ICE Field Offices – even if Members schedule visits in advance. No matter how much she and Trump want to force us to live under their authoritarian rule, ICE is not above oversight and the Department must follow the law," he continued.

The new guidance issued by DHS demands that lawmakers give 72 hours advance notice before visiting any detention center. In practice, that would mean that these brutal facilities have three whole days to clean up their act and cover up any ongoing abuses. There is simply no benign explanation for such a change.

Legally, lawmakers are permitted to enter any DHS facility "used to detain or otherwise house aliens" to inspect them under the aegis of Congressional oversight. The annual appropriations act specifically states that they are not required to "provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility."

The new DHS guidance memo also tries to insist that "ICE Field Offices are not detention facilities" and thus cannot be visited without notice under the appropriations act. Of course, if people are being detained at these offices they are, by definition, detention facilities.

"This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visits to ICE offices across the country, which are holding migrants – and sometimes even U.S. citizens – for days at a time," Congressman Thompson continued. "They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie."

"There is no valid or legal reason for denying Member access to ICE facilities and DHS’s ever-changing justifications prove this. To be clear, there is no agency or department that is ‘too busy’ for oversight. If ICE has nothing to hide, DHS must make its facilities available," he concluded.

The memo claims that DHS officials "will make every effort" to obey the law that permits Congress to visit facilities for oversight, but claims that circumstances like "operational conditions, security posture, etc," could affect the timing of such visits. Theoretically, this means that DHS officials could make up a slew of fake excuses to hold members of Congress at bay while they scramble to cover up whatever it is they want to cover up.

The changes come after a series of high-profile incidents in which Democratic lawmakers were accosted and arrested while trying to visit ICE facilities. At the same time, masked ICE enforcers are carrying out raids, detaining people, and denying them due process. We are charging headlong into a fascist dystopia and if we don't pull the brakes on this administration, our democracy could be lost forever.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. The law directly bars ICE from requiring prior notice before a Member of Congress can do a surprise inspection

Link to tweet

[Bev54]

8. Bring the National guard with them to break down the doors, if need be.

[orangecrush]

9. Kick

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. The law is clear that these rules are void

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Ranking Member Bennie G Thompson slams Kristi Noem's illegal move to block Congressional oversight of ICE facilities.

Link to tweet