BURSTRep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) condemned new policies Friday requiring prescreening for lawmakers’ visits to immigration detention facilities after a series of incidents where members of Congress seeking to conduct oversight were denied entry.
“This administration has continuously tried to go around Congress and block Congress from doing its constitutionally responsible duties,” Meeks said during a Friday appearance on MSNBC.
“We are and have oversight and should be let into these facilities without notice,” he added.
Meeks said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials can misrepresent conditions when provided advanced notice of oversight visits.
His comments come after the DHS issued new guidance requesting 72-hour notice before members of Congress visit facilities.
Several lawmakers in New Jersey, California, Illinois and New York have been barred from entering facilities to conduct legal oversight. Meeks said the DHS’s new policy is “problematic.”
“The way that you find out what actually is taking place, and we’ve done this under several administrations, Democrat and Republican previously, you’re able to walk in and make an assessment of what is and what is not taking place,” Meeks told MSNBC.
“When you are prevented from doing your job and prevented from, you know, doing what the Constitution says you should be doing, then it makes you feel that there is something going on that should not be going on.”
Multiple detainees have complained of overcrowding and a lack of due process amid national protests regarding the Trump administration’s new immigration policies.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) also said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is seeking to block lawmakers from visiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field offices, even during advance visits.
The DHS did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the allegations.
“No matter how much she and Trump want to force us to live under their authoritarian rule, ICE is not above oversight and the Department must follow the law. This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visits to ICE offices across the country, which are holding migrants - and sometimes even U.S. citizens - for days at a time,” Thompson, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.
“They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie. There is no valid or legal reason for denying Member access to ICE facilities and DHS's ever-changing justifications prove this,” he added.