Standoff at ICE Facility Leaves Democrats ‘Trapped’ for Half an Hour

Three New York Democrats were locked behind the gate of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center for close to a half hour while attempting to conduct a congressional oversight visit on Wednesday, the latest in a string of tense incidents outside ICE facilities involving Democratic lawmakers.

“We were greeted by a masked agent who refused to give us his name, who refused to show his face and proceed to lock the door,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat told reporters, speaking into microphones being held through the iron gate. “Keeping us, in essence, incarcerated.”

The New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella group that represents more than 200 immigration-related organizations, posted on X that Reps. Espaillat, Nydia Velázquez and Dan Goldman were “trapped” between a fence and the jail building. “They can’t get in or out!” the group added.

All three were released after about 30 minutes, according to multiple reports. The trio of lawmakers was joined during the visit by immigration advocates, who said there are at least 105 immigrants being detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, the primary federal prison in New York City.

“MDC Brooklyn has a long and shameful history of inhumane conditions, and now they are holding immigrants behind closed doors with no accountability,” Velázquez said in the release. “We are not going away. This contract must be terminated, and we will keep demanding answers.”

Federal judges have labeled the Metropolitan Detention Center, where 17 inmates have died since 2020, as “barbaric” and “inhumane,” and said its staff are “contemptuous of human life and dignity.” Defendants’ sentences are often reduced to account for the conditions they endured during their pretrial detention.

“MDC is notorious for dangerous and inhumane conditions that have resulted in multiple inmate deaths — including medical neglect, abuse, severe understaffing, and extreme temperatures,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a release after the visit. “And denying Members of Congress access to a federal detention facility is not only morally reprehensible, it is illegal.”

In July, Goldman sent an oversight letter to the federal Bureau of Prisons detailing the facility’s history of unsafe conditions and demanding a halt of future transfers. Goldman and Espaillat have also joined other House Democrats in suing the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for continually denying access to facilities for congressional oversight visits.

“Members of Congress have a constitutional and statutory right and responsibility to conduct oversight at facilities being used by the Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants. Period, end of story,” Goldman said in the release. “The Trump administration’s lawless efforts to defy that constitutional authority are a gross abuse of power, and we’re taking them to court in defense of that principle and to find out what they’re hiding.”

The incident Wednesday is the latest in a string of incidents involving Democrats attempting to conduct oversight at ICE facilities.

In New Jersey, Rep. LaMonica McIver was arrested and later pleaded not guilty to assault and obstruction charges in connection to an oversight visit in May. That same day, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was also arrested and charged with trespassing. Those charges were later dropped.

Democrats have vowed not to let the threat of criminal charges stop them from conducting their oversight duties, NOTUS previously reported. Despite congressional members having the legal authority to conduct unannounced oversight visits to federal detention facilities in their districts, DHS quietly amended its regulations to first require 24-hour, then 72-hour, then one-week appearance notices.

Democratic lawmakers, abiding by the notice requirements, have most recently been denied access after attempted visits at ICE facilities in Colorado, California and Maryland — at the same time Republicans visits are being granted, NOTUS reported, and even promoted by GOP members and the Trump administration.