Four Illinois Democratic members of Congress joined immigration and human rights advocates Wednesday morning at a suburban federal immigration processing center, demanding entry into the facility to check on the conditions of the detainees held there.
Illinois Reps. Danny Davis, Jesús “Chuy” García, Delia Ramirez and Jonathan Jackson were denied entry into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview. They were told they needed to make a request with ICE first.
“There is no regulation that requires us to give a prior announcement or to schedule an appointment,” García told a masked agent who came out to greet them through the gate. “We are here by our authority (as members of Congress) and we seek a meeting and an inspection of this facility.”
“I respect your request, but these are the instructions that we have,” the agent responded. The agent, who was wearing a White Sox hat, black sunglasses and a black facemask, walked away after García asked him to identify himself.
With news reporters watching, the group’s visit is just the latest effort by Democrats across the country to push back against President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration tactics and demand greater transparency over ICE’s escalated detainments. Democratic elected officials in recent days have publicly pressed for greater access to federal immigration facilities and used the fact they were denied entry to demonstrate the federal arrests are undermining constitutional rights.
On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Jackson tried to enter an ICE office at 2245 S. Michigan Ave. but were told to leave, Jackson said. The same day,
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate, was arrested for allegedly “assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer” at an immigration court in Manhattan, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The arrest was captured on video that quickly went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson toured a field office in Chicago Wednesday morning, according to WGN, which had a camera crew there. The speaker met with local staff and officers, the TV station reported.
In Broadview, however, federal representatives were met with mostly silence in their two hours at the facility. Eventually, Manda Walters, the region’s director of community relations for ICE in the Chicago area, answered a call from them.
After a brief exchange with García, Walters told him that she would call him back. A short moment later, an agent inside the facility posted a notice on the door: “When planning to visit an ICE facility, ICE asks for requests to be submitted at least 72 hours in advance.”
“What are they hiding? What is happening there that you need time to let us in?” Ramirez said after reading the notice. Ramirez said members of Congress are not required to make a request for visits.
Neither ICE nor DHS immediately responded to a request for comment. But in a post on the social platform X, in an apparent message to García, DHS wrote: “Congressman, all members, and staff need to comply with facility rules, procedures, and instructions from ICE personnel on site.”
After being shown the post, García shook his head. “It’s absurd. They are lying to the public.”
While the representatives tried to enter the facility, several immigrants who had received a text or call to show up for a check-in at the facility arrived with their attorneys and also waited outside.
A man said he had been in the country for more than five years and though he was hopeful, he was also getting ready to leave.
“I just want them to give me some time to get some stuff, prepare my family and go back to Mexico. But I pray they don’t detain me,” he said. His attorney, Katarina Ramos, stood by his side.
Advocates from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights have raised questions about conditions at the Broadview detention facility over the last several weeks as arrests began escalating in the Chicago area. They reported that some detainees are being held for several days while being forced to sleep on the floor, eat cold food and go without access to showers.
Attorneys said many are being kept at the facility for more than two to three days, despite it being designated as a short-term processing center meant to hold people for only a few hours. The representatives said they are concerned about their access to health care and other necessities. They have also raised concerns over the lack of information on detainees’ whereabouts.
Davis’ district includes the processing center. He said he is concerned that people are being kept in the facility as a detention center, which would be in violation of state law.
Because of the Way Forward Act, a state law enacted in 2021 that prohibits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal deportation authorities, Illinois does not have any detention centers. Detainees typically are transported to a detention center in a neighboring state.
“Providing direct services — legal counsel, translation help, connection to community support — is not just a gesture, it’s a responsibility,” said Davis, who added that all four members of Congress were aware that some of their constituents were detained at Broadview.
Last week,
protests erupted across the country over Trump’s immigration crackdown, ignited after Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles amid unrest over ICE arrests there.
Protesters in Chicago, mostly led by pro-immigrant groups, have since organized several demonstrations against ICE, criticizing enforcement tactics such as when agents in plainclothes and without identification or badges strong-arm people into unmarked vehicles during arrests.
Chicago ICE field office Director
Sam Olson told the Tribune that agents cover their faces for their own safety against an increasingly hostile public.
On Sunday, just days after Trump said he would pause arrests of some workers in the agricultural, hospitality and restaurant industries, Trump directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities, including Chicago.
Wednesday evening, the congressional members sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding access to constituents at the Broadview facility.
“We demand that you allow us to exercise our right to oversight over ICE facilities and detention centers, to ensure that people being held there are being treated humanely, with dignity and respect,” the letter said. “Anything less is shameful and illegal.”
