Congress needs to exercise oversight authority over deportation centers | Opinion

Lodi resident José Rubén Hernández Gómez had just finished four years of a six-year prison sentence for assault in November 2021 when he was transferred to federal custody for deportation.

Hernández Gómez – who was born in Guanajuato, México and was a child when his family moved to the United States – spent 17 months in privately-run federal detention centers in Kern County, where he alleges in a lawsuit that detained immigrants were threatened with the loss of meals, recreation, or access to a law library or telephone if they complained of inadequate pay for cleaning the facilities. Hernández and others were paid $1 a day for their work.

In a pending lawsuit against the GEO Group, Hernández Gómez, who is home in Lodi, said the places were infested with mold, cockroaches and water beetles. Detainees, he said, drank rust-colored water from the faucets.

In a 2022 report, the American Civil Liberties Union analyzed hundreds of complaints filed by people held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and painted a picture of inhumane conditions, including medical neglect, harassment, sleep deprivation, sexual assault and abuse of solitary confinement.

“It is abundantly clear that the government cannot guarantee that its immigration detention facilities will meet non-negotiable human rights standards,” said Maricela Sánchez, the report’s author. “We are inspired by the courageous people who provide us with these records, and all the immigrants who continue to fight for basic human dignity in the face of ICE’s abuse.”

It appears the situation has not changed. The New York Times reported this past weekend about overcrowded ICE detention facilities across the country, with detainees going a week or more without showering, housed in cramped rooms and sleeping on bare floors.

Congress does have an oversight responsibility that includes ICE detention facilities. That is why it is troubling that at least nine members of Congress have been denied entry to such facilities in New York and California in June to look into concerns about how detainees are being treated.

How detained immigrants are housed and treated is especially important these days as the Trump administration ramps up its deportation efforts. Billions of taxpayer dollars are being used for their care. The House Judiciary bill provides $45 billion for building new immigration detention centers, including facilities for family detention.

To make matters worse, the Department of Homeland Security – which oversees ICE, Customs and Border Protection and the Border Patrol – issued a rule asking members of Congress to provide at least a 72-hour notice to visit ICE facilities.

Congress needs to push back

Fresno Rep. Jim Costa was among 40 House Democrats who fired off an April 29 letter to Customs and Border Protection over concerns of alleged due process violations, mistreatment, prolonged detention and politicized denials of entry at airports and ports.

Such a letter telling Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that her new regulation is hogwash should be sent as well. Her department said the policy was in response to “a surge in assaults, disruptions and obstructions to enforcement, including by politicians themselves.” However, videos of some of those arrests fail to show assaults by elected officials.

“The law is crystal clear that members of Congress can visit these ICE processing sites, these detention centers at any time with no notice,” California Rep. Robert García said on MSNBC on June 21. “There’s just no reason why members of Congress should not be allowed to visit these sites. What are they hiding.”

In a May letter sent to Noem, three Democratic House members made clear that the law does not prevent a Congressional member “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, went on MSNBC on June 22 and promised that when fellow Democrats got back on Monday “you’ll see a ramped-up effort.”

“If there’s an opportunity for members to go to court and hold this administration accountable for what they’re doing, we will do it,” said Thompson.

Nothing has been done thus far. That is just as troubling as being denied entry. Oversight visits to ICE detention centers are part of the checks and balances built into our government that the Trump administration is ignoring.

San Joaquin Valley representatives Costa, Adam Gray, David Valadao and Vince Fong need to visit ICE detention centers to make sure detainees are being treated fairly.

This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM.