Democratic members of Congress on Monday left a Los Angeles processing center run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement fuming, accusing the federal government of clearing out almost all of the detainees and sanitizing the center ahead of their arrival.
The lawmakers had been trying for months to get a look inside the facility known as B-18. Their efforts even led to a federal lawsuit and widespread complaints that they were purposely being given the runaround.
They finally were allowed entry into the basement facility, only to leave with more questions than answers, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Migrants, as well as some U.S. citizens who were rounded up during ICE raids at Home Depot parking lots, car washes, and farms by heavily armed agents in masks, were taken to B-18. Detainees complained about being held for days and about overcrowding.
The Associated Press and other media outlets have taken photos and done interviews with visitors to B-18 that have depicted crowded conditions and long wait times to get inside, with tales of people sleeping on concrete and inmates so thirsty that they were drinking from toilets.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which sued the federal government over mass sweeps without first establishing reasonable suspicion that the people targeted were in the United States illegally, described B-18 as “dungeon-like.” The group also accused the Trump administration of failing to “provide basic necessities like food, water, adequate hygiene facilities, and medical care.”
It was a very different view from the one the lawmakers were given on Monday.
When Reps. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), and Judy Chu (D-CA) were finally let inside the facility in downtown Los Angeles, which can hold up to 335 detainees, it was nearly empty. Only two people were in the holding rooms, lawmakers said at a news conference after their visit.
“They wanted to show us nothing,” Gomez said. “It was nothing, it was like no one was there. It was deliberate so members of Congress cannot conduct oversight.”
In June, the Trump administration implemented a new policy that mandates a seven-day notice period and prohibits access to field offices where people are being detained, despite a federal law that prevents these restrictions. The new policy blocks lawmakers from obtaining real-time information necessary to perform their constitutional duty to ensure the Department of Homeland Security is complying with federal law in operating these facilities and to oversee how billions in taxpayer dollars are being spent, Gomez said.
Still, the Democratic lawmakers said what they saw of the facility was troubling.
Chu, who was denied entry to the facility twice before, said there were no beds. ICE detainees are only supposed to be held at the facility for 72 hours, but Chu said she has heard stories of people being crammed into the facility for 12 days. There have also been reports of people getting only one meal per day. Chu said she visited the on-site food pantry, which she called “scanty.”
“I am deeply disturbed by what I saw and what I heard,” Chu said.
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She also questioned the lack of available hygiene materials, such as soap and toothbrushes.
DHS did not respond to a request from the Washington Examiner for comment about the facility or the claim by Democratic lawmakers that it had been “sanitized” ahead of their arrival.
