Congress members raise concerns after visit to downtown LA immigration detention facility
Congress member visits immigrant detention center
Rep. Jimmy Gomez conducted a court-authorized oversight visit of a federal immigration detention facility in downtown Los Angeles after reports that families, including infants, were being held in a basement area known as B-17.
Armed with a court order, Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif., 34th District) got inside the federal immigration detention facility in the DTLA Federal Building to conduct an oversight visit. His office had received reports from attorneys and advocates that families, including infants, had been held in a basement section of the facility known as B-17, which Gomez says he didn’t even know about.
Gomez is one of the members of Congress supposed to have access to holding facilities to check on conditions. But this visit follows a recent federal court ruling blocking the Trump administration and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from enforcing a policy requiring seven-day advance notice before visiting detention centers.
Thursday's visit did require 24-hour notice, explains Rep. Norma Torres, who accompanied Gomez during the visit. They say B-17 does exist, with "plastic chairs in a waiting room, but no cribs or nothing to indicate that families should be staying there, let alone for more than 24 hours." At the same time, Gomez did say that "at least they are keeping women and children away from the general population." He did not see any families there that day and was not allowed to speak with detainees, which they approximate at 20 right now.
FOX 11 was not allowed inside the facility, but while waiting, we did see families trying to connect with their loved ones, directed to other offices, and one attorney with the Immigrants Defenders Law Center waiting for close to an hour as she tried to meet with a pregnant woman who had called her family, saying she was detained by ICE. The attorney had the woman’s identifying information, even her detention identification number, but was told she was nowhere in the system.
"That’s especially concerning," said Gomez, who also tried to locate the woman with no luck. Sometimes people are immediately removed from the country, but Gomez expressed his fear that someone pretending to be ICE kidnapped that woman, and she had no way of knowing, since ICE agents cover their faces and do not identify themselves. Torres says she will be trying to find her.
They are asking immigrants to contact their offices and fill out DHS Privacy Waivers Authorizing Disclosure to a Third Party forms. These allow them or their staff to try to locate detainees in the system. They are asking people not to date the forms. "Crazy that we even have to do this," said Torres. "But this is the world we now live in."