Judge Suspends DHS Policy Requiring Lawmakers Give Notice To Visit ICE Facilities
On Monday, a federal judge once again struck down a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy requiring Congressmembers to give a week’s notice before visiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities.
According to NBC News, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb found that the 13 Democratic lawmakers who filed the case against DHS would likely succeed in arguing that the seven-day notice exceeded the federal government’s authority and was likely illegal. Cobb added that the Trump administration had not produced “concrete examples of safety issues posed by congressional visits without advanced notice.”
Cobb had previously struck down a similar policy in December of last year. However, only a day after Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, the now former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem covertly implemented a new version of the policy that was virtually identical to the one Cobb previously struck down. DHS didn’t notify anyone of the new policy until Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison, and Angie Craig were turned away from visiting an ICE detention facility near Minneapolis on Jan. 11.
“Plaintiffs are undoubtedly frustrated with Defendants’ repeated attempts to impose a notice requirement,” Cobb wrote. “But in taking further action, Defendants are required to abide by the terms of the Court’s order and act consistently with the legal principles announced in this opinion.”
It’s not surprising that Noem would try to impose a policy limiting unannounced visits by lawmakers to ICE facilities, as there have been growing accounts of how poor conditions are for detainees. ICE’s largest detention facility, Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, has been an example of how poorly run many of these facilities are.
Camp East Montana has been open for less than a year and has racked up countless controversies. In September, ICE’s own inspectors found the facility violated at least 60 federal regulations regarding immigrant detention. In December, the ACLU published a letter where several detainees alleged that they were beaten and coerced for refusing deportation to countries where they weren’t citizens. Between December and January, three people died while detained at the camp.
Francisco Gaspar-Andres, a 48-year-old Guatemalan man, died of health complications from cirrhosis and cardiac hypertrophy. Victor Manuel Diaz, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan man, “died of a presumed suicide” inside the facility on Jan. 14, though his family is skeptical of that explanation, given ICE’s unusual handling of his autopsy. It should be noted that ICE had a military hospital conduct Diaz’s autopsy, after the El Paso Medical Examiner ruled that the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban held at the facility, was a homicide.
On top of all of that, NBC News reports that Camp East Montana confirmed this week that there is currently a measles outbreak at the facility, with at least 14 confirmed cases. An ICE spokesperson told NBC News that those who tested positive for measles are currently being “cohorted and separated from the rest of the detained population to prevent further spread.”
Mind you, this all happened at the facility that was supposed to be the blueprint for how ICE would detain immigrants during its mass deportation campaign.
As a result of these compounding controversies, the Washington Post reports that the Trump administration is quietly moving to close the facility. While Lauren Bis, a DHS spokesperson, told the Post that “no decisions have been made related to contract extension, termination, or award,” the Post found a letter being drafted by the Trump administration canceling its contract with Acquisition Logistics, LLC, the company overseeing Camp East Montana.
Between the potential closure of Camp East Montana and Noem’s firing, it’s hard not to see these moves as the Trump administration doing its damage control for its now deeply unpopular immigration crackdown.
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