Ossoff says Trump administration blocked visit to ICE detention center

Georgia’s Democratic U.S. senators have launched an inquiry into the Trump administration’s new policy of restricting lawmaker access to immigration detention facilities.

On Monday, Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock sent a letter to Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, criticizing her department’s “arbitrary and illegal obstruction” of Congress members’ ability to conduct oversight visits at detention facilities.

Those facilities have seen detainee populations surge amid the Trump administration’s push to achieve mass deportations. Eleven other Democratic senators also signed Monday’s letter.

Limiting congressional access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities “undermines Congress’s inherent authority to conduct oversight that ensures detained individuals’ human rights and protects Americans from agency waste, fraud, and abuse,” the letter says.

On Monday, Jon Ossoff (left), Raphael Warnock and 11 other Democratic senators sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questioning restricted access to immigration detention centers. (Ben Hendren for the AJC)

By law, members of Congress are allowed to visit ICE detention facilities without notice. Their staff may also visit with at least 24 hours notice.

But in recent months, lawmakers across the country have been blocked from entering facilities where immigrants are held. Monday’s letter says Ossoff’s office had to postpone “an urgent inspection of conditions for children” inside a federal facility because of new DHS restrictions.

Back in June, the agency codified those restrictions in a policy memo.

The guidance asked members of Congress to give at least 72 hours notice for visits. It stipulated that ICE has broad power to “deny a request or otherwise cancel, reschedule or terminate a tour or visit” by lawmakers or their staff under a variety of circumstances that include “operational concerns” or if “facility management or other ICE officials deem it appropriate to do so.”

The new policy also held that ICE field offices are off-limits and not subject to the provision in federal law that allows lawmakers to conduct oversight visits. Although they are not outfitted for long-term detention, ICE field offices have been used by the Trump administration to hold immigrants for days, including in Atlanta.

Stewart Detention Center is a privately run, all-male facility operated by CoreCivic in Lumpkin. This immigration center can hold nearly 2,000 detainees. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found in a story published in October there had been 1,239 cases of individuals spending at least 24 hours in the basement of the Atlanta field office, which lacks both beds and showers.