3 California Democrats denied entry to a high desert ICE detention center Sunday

Three Southern California members of Congress were denied entry to an ICE Processing facility near Victorville on Sunday, June 8, saying the Trump Administration is breaking the law by keeping them from overseeing the detention of Angelenos after three days of raids in Los Angeles County.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Covina and Rep. Derek Tran, D-Cypress, said they went to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in the high desert to see the conditions of detainees brought there after raids in Paramount, Compton and other areas in L.A. County over the weekend. But they were met with padlocks on the gates preventing their entrance.

“We have the right to conduct oversight of this detention facility. But as soon as we drove up they actually put this lock on this gate, and on that lock so we could not get in and exercise our lawful duties. That is not right,” Chu said in a video posted on X at 9:53 a.m. Sunday, while standing in front of a chained gate of the Adelanto facility.

Chu said she was there with her fellow Democratic colleagues from Southern California, and with members of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) and members of the ACLU “to demand answers about unjustly detained immigrants after targeted raids on LA businesses. ICE is denying us entry but we won’t stop demanding answers.”

Trump says he is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles — over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump said on Sunday the move was necessary “to maintain law and order.”

The raids prompted protests, and on Saturday night some agitators threw fireworks at federal officers and some LAPD officers. Rocks and large chunks of concrete was also hurled at law enforcement vehicles in downtown Los Angeles near the federal ICE detention facility. A store was vandalized in Compton.

Many congressional representatives on Saturday night said they were denied entry into the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, including Chu, as well as Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles. “Families are being held inside this federal facility — some without basic necessities, some in inhumane conditions,” Gomez posted on Saturday.

Newsom, who said the move by Trump to activate some National Guard troops was not necessary and that local law enforcement was keeping order, said on Sunday on X: “The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle. Don’t give them one.”

Federal law allows for a member of Congress or designated employees of the U.S. House or Senate to enter any facility operated by the Department of Homeland Security for the purpose of conducting oversight.

Members of Congress do not need to provide advance notice for visits to ICE detention facilities, guidelines on the immigration agency’s website note. Congressional staff must give 24 hours’ notice, according to federal law.

In front of the locked gate, Cisneros said in a video on X posted Sunday around 11 a.m.: “We are doing an oversight visit. As you all know, they’ve been just on a rampage going through Los Angeles rounding up people, not asking questions, not even verifying citizenship. Right now they are not letting us in, as is our right by law, to conduct oversight visits. But right now they are not following the law.”

About 45 people were detained by ICE, according to earlier reports.

Cisneros also disagreed with the deployment of National Guard troops into the streets of Los Angeles.

“Donald Trump, who refused to call up the National Guard when the U.S. Capitol was under attack, is calling up the Guard to stop the people from exercising their First Amendment right to protest in Los Angeles. Trump is manufacturing chaos,” Cisneros wrote in a previous post on X.

Kristi Noem, who heads the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the president sent National Guard soldiers to the area to counteract Newsom’s objections, which the president called a bad decision.