A federal judge has temporarily restored Congress members’ ability to inspect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities without appointments.
The court order filed Feb. 2 in Washington, D.C., comes after members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation were barred from conducting an oversight visit to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in January.
The facility has been the epicenter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, and people who have been detained there have described being held in troubling conditions. Detainees have described overcrowded cells and the lack of basic necessities like food and medical care.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has argued she reinstated an ICE policy requiring members of Congress to provide seven days’ notice before visiting a detention facility. A dozen members of Congress filed a lawsuit challenging that policy, arguing federal law allowed them to enter detention facilities and investigate conditions.
Congress members have had the right to inspect immigration detention facilities since 2019, when the access was included in a spending bill. A funding bill approved last year attempted to walk back that oversight.
U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison attempted to inspect the detention conditions at the Whipple Federal Building on Jan. 10, but were forced to leave shortly after entering the facility. The building is home to federal offices, including immigration court, and was only designed to hold detainees briefly while they appeared for their cases.
Morrison posted a video Sunday saying she recently visited the Whipple building and “what I saw was not what I would expect in the United States of America,” she said.
Morrison said her office was flooded with reports of “cruel, unsafe, unlawful conditions” inside the building, and she had been concerned about inadequate medical care. She said two women being held at Whipple when she visited told “harrowing stories” of their treatment.
