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ICE Places New Limits on Congressional Visits

New protocol says field offices don't count as detention centers
Posted Jun 20, 2025 12:25 PM CDT
New ICE Policy Limits Congressional Visits
A woman stands off with a law enforcement officer wearing a Houston Field Office Special Response Team patch outside the US Immigration and Customs building during a protest Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Portland, Oregon.   (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Immigration and Custom Enforcement has issued new rules for congressional visits to ICE facilities after a series of incidents, including one that led to a New Jersey lawmaker's indictment. The new protocol asks members of Congress to provide at least 72 hours' notice before visiting an ICE facility. The Department of Homeland Security acknowledges that members of Congress have the right to make unannounced visits to detention facilities, but it says ICE field offices "fall outside" of that right, the Washington Post reports.

  • Rep. Delia Ramirez, one of four Illinois Democrats denied entry to an ICE processing center this week, pushed back against the protocol. "The law is clear. Members of Congress have the authority to conduct oversight at any facility, unannounced," she said in a post on X. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the four lawmakers asked the administration to "allow us to exercise our right to oversight over ICE facilities and detention centers, to ensure that people being held there are being treated humanely, with dignity and respect."

  • The new protocol requires congressional staff to provide a minimum of 24 hours' notice before visiting an ICE facility, Axios reports. "ICE retains the sole and unreviewable discretion to deny a request or otherwise cancel, reschedule, or terminate a tour visit," it states.
  • Visitors shall not have "physical or verbal contact with any person in ICE detention facilities unless previously requested and specifically approved by ICE Headquarters," the protocol states.
  • Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, called the policy an "affront to the Constitution and Federal law," the Post reports. "This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visit to ICE offices across the country which are holding migrants—and sometimes even US citizens—for days at a time," he said in a statement. "They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time."
(More ICE stories.)

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