A dozen congressional Democrats are suing the Trump administration to gain unfettered access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the District of Columbia’s federal court, accuses ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of improperly blocking congressional oversight into immigration detention centers and ICE field offices, according to court documents. The Trump administration, in turn, is accusing Democrats of not following protocol and grandstanding for fundraising purposes.
“Nevertheless, since June 2025, each Plaintiff, in his or her official capacity as an individual member of Congress, has attempted to obtain information about conditions at a DHS facility used to detain or otherwise house noncitizens,” the lawsuit stated. “Each Plaintiff has done so by visiting a facility in person, or by giving DHS notice of imminent plans to do so, for the purpose of conducting real-time oversight of that facility.”
The lawsuit further claimed that “each of those attempted oversight visits has been blocked by Defendants.”
Laws ensuring members of Congress the right to visit DHS facilities have been on the books since 2019, according to court documents. However, details around oversight policy have become a major point of contention.
The administration’s new “oversight visit policy” requires lawmakers to give a week’s notice before visiting a detention center and also deems certain DHS facilities, such as ICE field offices, as off-limits, the lawsuit alleges. The Democrats claim this oversight policy to be unlawful, and are asking the court to block the administration from enforcing it.
“This lawsuit is our message: We as Members of Congress will do our job, and we will not let these agencies operate in the shadows,” California Democrat Rep. Jimmy Gomez, one of the plaintiffs, said in a press release.
Earlier in July, Gomez appeared to be under the impression that a marijuana grow site raided by ICE agents was a regular farm, openly asking on social media “How many MS-13 gang members are waking up at 3 a.m. to pick strawberries? O’yeah, zero!”
In reaction to Wednesday’s lawsuit, the Trump administration argued that these lawmakers are not following proper procedure.
“These Members of Congress could have just scheduled a tour; instead, they’re running to court to drive clicks and fundraising emails,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“As ICE law enforcement have seen a surge in assaults, disruptions, and obstructions to enforcement — including by Member of Congress themselves — any requests to tour processing centers and field offices must be approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security,” McLaughlin continued. “These requests must be part of legitimate congressional oversight activities.”
DHS added that ICE officers have experienced an 830% increase in assaults. The threat against ICE agents has become another point of contention, with Democrats increasingly demanding agents not wear masks while conducting operations.
“As for visits to detention facilities, requests should be made with sufficient time to prevent interference with the President’s Article II authority to oversee executive department functions — a week is sufficient to ensure no intrusion on the President’s constitutional authority,” McLaughlin said. “To protect the President’s Article II authority, any request to shorten that time must be approved by the Secretary.”
The plaintiffs in Wednesday’s lawsuit include California Reps. Jimmy Gomez, Norma Torres, Raul Ruiz, Jose Luis Correa and Robert Garcia, New York Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman, Joe Neguse of Colorado, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Veronica Escobar of Texas.
The lawsuit names DHS and Secretary Kristi Noem, along with ICE and Acting Director Todd Lyons, as defendants.
Democratic oversight of ICE facilities has become an increasingly fraught issue since President Donald Trump — who has made immigration enforcement a hallmark goal of his administration — returned to the White House.
A visit to a Newark, New Jersey, immigration detention center in May turned chaotic when congressional Democrats, joined by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, were denied immediate entry and allegedly tried to push their way inside. New Jersey Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting ICE officers, and she has pleaded not guilty.
More recently, Maryland Democrats on Monday staged a sit-in an ICE building being temporarily used for holding foreign nationals facing deportation after being denied a tour of the facility.
Through various agreements with private contractors and local jails, the Trump administration has dramatically expanded migrant detention capacity across the country, recent analysis has found. Altogether, roughly 60 additional federal, state and local jails and prisons have started detaining newly-apprehended migrants facing removal since Trump re-entered office in January.
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