Democratic lawmakers had been suing the Trump administration over their previous attempts to visit ICE facilities.
Federal immigration authorities say they no longer have to provide on-demand access to detention facilities for members of Congress. The reason? The government shutdown.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have been fighting a lawsuit brought by Democratic lawmakers over prior denied visit attempts, have informed lawmakers that they simply don’t have the staff or funding to support those visits. Lawmakers have previously been legally allowed to demand them as part of their oversight duties, which includes monitoring conditions and communicating with detainees facing deportation.
And in court, ICE has added another explanation: As a result of the shutdown, there’s now no law on the books that requires the Trump administration to accommodate lawmakers’ visits. That requirement had been contained in government funding laws that expired when the shutdown began. Instead, ICE informed U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb that it is now funding its operations with appropriations made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which does not require congressional access.
“ICE is no longer funding the operation of its detention facilities … with any funds that were appropriated subject to [the requirement for lawmaker visits]” Justice Department attorneys indicated.
The result has been mounting frustration for congressional Democrats, who had already been suing the Trump administration for curtailing or limiting access to detention facilities prior to the shutdown. They said even when the requirement was on the books, ICE had thrown up roadblocks to their visits.
“Members and staff were informed that the denials were due to the ongoing government shutdown and a lack of available funding or personnel to facilitate the visits,” said an aide to one congressional office affected by the policy change, requesting anonymity due to the ongoing litigation.
Now, their emails requesting visits are either being denied or met with auto-replies.
“Due to the current hiatus in federal funding, ICE Office of Congressional Relations staff are currently out of the office and unable to respond to emails, phone calls, or perform other work-related duties. Once funding is restored, normal operations will resume,” read one recent auto-reply to a lawmaker’s office, reviewed by POLITICO.
Cobb is weighing whether to pause the ongoing lawsuit until the shutdown ends.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, acknowledged the shutdown’s impact on lawmaker visits and said the lawmakers themselves were to blame.
“While the Democrats may not care about shutting down the government and making millions of public servants go without a paycheck, maybe they will get back to work now that they have lost the precious appropriations rider they rely on to try to storm ICE facilities,” said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
McLaughlin’s comment appears to reference the scrum that broke out when Rep. LaMonica McIver and two other Democratic lawmakers visited a detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, earlier this year. Federal prosecutors charged McIver with assaulting a security official after she and others intervened to prevent the arrest of Newark’s Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka. McIver has pleaded not guilty and has accused the Trump administration of “political intimidation.”
The Trump administration has attempted to punish Democrats during the shutdown by pinning the fallout on the left while ensuring the president’s own priorities continue uninterrupted. Offices tasked with immigration enforcement have retained significantly more staff than in prior shutdowns, and immigration enforcement operations have continued without interruption — further buffered by mandatory funding included in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
And administration officials have used the shutdown fight to both needle and target Democrats. The administration has frozen or canceled billions for projects in Democratic jurisdictions, while finding money in an effort to blunt the most politically fraught parts of the shutdown.