Congress members denied entry to Manhattan ICE facility, claim overcrowding, unsanitary conditions
Two members of Congress were blocked Sunday from entering an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Manhattan after trying to inspect it amid widespread detainments and claims of unbearable heat and overcrowding — including detainees being forced to sleep on bathroom floors.
New York Democrat Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velazquez tried to perform a drop-in check at a temporary detainment facility at 26 Federal Plaza in Tribeca Sunday afternoon, but said they were illegally denied entry by an official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The pair argued that as elected officials, they have the legal right to inspect the facility unannounced.
'This is not Russia,' Rep. Velazquez said. 'This is the United States of America where we have three branches of government. The president of the United States is not a king. And we, as members of Congress, have the duly constitutional responsibility to exercise oversight in a place like this. What is it that they are hiding?'
The congressional reps tried inspecting the facility — where hundreds of immigrants are reportedly being held after being swept up in recent ICE raids — after receiving reports of unbearable heat and overcrowding to the point that detainees have been forced to sleep on bathroom floors, according to the New York Immigration Coalition.
'We are members or Congress, duly elected. Our constitutional right and our constitutional duty is to have oversight over these agencies and to ensure that we supervise and ascertain whether the conditions in these facilities are just or not, whether they're inhumane or not,' Rep. Espailllat said.
'Today ICE violated all of our rights because as an extension, we are here to defend your rights, the rights of the American people to have access and oversight to the federal buildings to ensure that everything is done correctly and in accordance to the law,' he said. 'We were denied that right today, a basic civil right, a constitutional right, that we as members of congress are here to uphold. So we will continue to come back.
'We will continue to come back until we are allowed to have access to the 10th floor.'
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