{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/us-representatives-goldman-and-espaillat-conduct-oversight-ice-facilities-26", "U.S. Representatives Goldman and Espaillat Conduct Oversight of ICE Facilities at 26 Federal Plaza Following Court Win", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "NY", "Daniel S. Goldman", "G000599", "goldman.house.gov", "goldman", "https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Lawmakers Gained Access to ICE Facilities at 26 Federal Plaza After Suing Trump Administration\n\nCongressional Oversight Visit Marks the First Time Members of Congress Have Been Allowed at 26 Federal Plaza Facilities During Trump Administration\n\nVideo of the Press Conference Can Be Viewed Here\n\nNEW YORK, NY - Today U.S. Representatives Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) gained access to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities at 26 Federal Plaza to conduct their congressional oversight duties. The oversight visit marks the first time under the Trump Administration that Members of Congress have been allowed access to these facilities in order to exercise their lawful congressional duties of inspecting immigration detention facilities to ensure the safety of detained individuals and compliance with federal law.\n\n\u201cToday, after months of being blocked from entry, Rep. Espaillat and I finally gained access to 26 Federal Plaza to exercise our oversight responsibility of the ICE facilities there,\u201d said Rep. Goldman. \u201cWhat we saw today only reaffirms the clear violations of both law and American values by the Trump Administration\u2019s immigration dragnet. Law-abiding, nonviolent immigrants are still kept for up to three days without showers or beds and often no way to contact their families or lawyers. I have no doubt that this week\u2019s court order to allow congressional access into 26 Federal Plaza and other ICE detention facilities around the country forced ICE to improve conditions here. But Members of Congress should not have needed to seek a court order to conduct oversight. I will continue to use every tool available, including returning here to conduct oversight unannounced, to hold ICE and the Trump Administration accountable.\u201d\n\n\u201cToday, we saw people housed for as long as three days or more in cells without access to showers, limited toilets, no real beds \u2013 an administrative building is simply not equipped to hold detainees. The Trump administration's obsession with hitting an arbitrary \u2013 and unrealistic \u2013 number of deportations is creating a humanitarian crisis,\u201d said CHC Chair Rep. Adriano Espaillat. \u201cThe courts reaffirmed our right to inspect detention centers and we exercised that right immediately -- that's the good news. The bad news is we saw what we already knew to be true: The White House's unhinged expectations are forcing DHS officials to cut corners. This is not how America should enforce its laws.\u201d\n\nThe Members have been previously denied access to the ICE facilities at 26 Federal Plaza and the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York Field Office at the same location. However, on December 17, a U.S. District Court ruled in favor of twelve members of Congress, including Reps. Goldman and Espaillat, who sued the Trump Administration in an effort to halt ICE\u2019s policy of blocking Members of Congress from conducting unannounced oversight visits to ICE facilities, including field offices. The District Court\u2019s opinion temporarily restored the Members\u2019 lawful duties of inspecting immigration detention facilities to oversee compliance with federal law.\n\nFederal law (Sec. 527, FY2024 DHS Appropriations Act) allows Members of Congress to visit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sites where noncitizens are detained without having to provide prior notice. But over the course of this year, many Members of Congress have been stopped from their attempts to conduct oversight at these facilities. In response to questions about this, ICE officials announced a new policy requiring a seven-day waiting period and preventing entry to ICE field offices.\n\nOn July 30, Rep. Goldman, Rep. Espaillat, and ten other individual Members of the U.S. House of Representatives sued the Trump\u2013Vance administration, challenging the policy as an unlawful obstruction of congressional oversight. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, by counsel Democracy Forward and American Oversight, demanded that the administration comply with a federal law that guarantees Members of Congress the right to conduct oversight visits to any Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities - including field offices - where noncitizens are detained, without prior notice. The U.S. District Court opinion issued on December 17 temporarily halted ICE\u2019s unlawful policy of blocking members of Congress from conducting unannounced oversight visits to ICE facilities, including field offices.\n\nEarlier this month, Representatives Goldman and Espaillat (NY-13), along with Rep. Nydia Velazquez (NY-7) and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (CA-42), introduced the Immigration Court Due Process Protection Act, new legislation that aims to protect immigrants who are pursuing lawful pathways to migrate to the United States and attending their court-ordered appearances from being targeted for arrests by the Trump Administration. The legislation would prohibit U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers or agents from arresting or detaining an individual that is physically present at an Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) immigration court facility for the purpose of attending or participating in a hearing, except pursuant to a judicial warrant. These protections would extend to individuals whose immigration case is still active and has not resulted in a final order of removal.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/us-representatives-goldman-and-espaillat-conduct-oversight-ice-facilities-26"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0703570917248726, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}