BALTIMORE — After a failed attempt to visit Baltimore’s ICE field office, three democrat lawmakers were able to secure entry on Wednesday morning but they say questions, and concerns, remain.
“The refrain was, we’ll get back to you on that, we’ll get back to you on that,” U.S. Representative Kweisi Mfume (D-District 7) recalled during the hour and a half long visit to the holding facility at 31 Hopkins Plaza.
Mfume alongside Senator Chris Van Hollen (D) and Representative Sarah Elfreth (D- District 3) toured the facility that has been a source of scrutiny since the federal government’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
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Once ICE began ramping up its efforts earlier this year, reports surfaced of people detained at the facility past the 12 hour federal limit, sometimes for days, as well as inhumane conditions.
It’s still unclear how many have been detained at the facility since January.
“There seems to be a great deal of inefficiency in the ICE operation. And shame on them. The people of this nation deserve better no matter how you feel about immigration,” Mfume said. “We are a system in a society of basic laws and courtesies and a belief that people are proven innocent until proven guilty.”
Though ICE data is not available locally, national data shows that 84% of detainees have no criminal convictions which are labeled as “no ICE threat level."
A point made several times by the lawmakers.
“None of us are here to defend hardened criminals or gang members or anyone who is in violation of the laws but we’re talking about people who in many cases have been here for years or decades, they’ve raised families here, they’ve started businesses here, they’ve pastored here,” Rep. Elfreth said.
The members were invited back by ICE after they were illegally denied entry on July 28. Homeland Security indicated that the congressional delegation needed to provide notice, which they had not received. But Mfume says they had sent a letter prior to their attempt.
Though the law that grants congressional members oversight capabilities does not require prior notice.
“It’s really disingenuous to say 'well, you know, those guys never let us know they were coming.' We did. And at some point, ICE needs to tell the truth," he said.
At the time, Maryland’s lone republican congressman Andy Harris (R- District 1) previously criticized his colleagues for staging a stunt for the cameras to “keep illegals in Maryland.”
In response to the lawmakers’ visit on Wednesday, a spokesperson shared the following statement with WMAR-2 News:
“Congressman Harris supports the Trump administration’s goal of securing the border and removing criminal illegals from Maryland and our country.”
Meanwhile, Van Hollen reports they could not speak to any of the seven or eight detainees they saw inside.
“There’s nothing in Maryland law that prohibits a member of congress from talking to a detainee. Clearly, they don’t want us talking to the people who are detained here today,” he said.
Though not every question came with an answer on the spot, the lawmakers were informed that there had been more than 100 people held at the facility at once at some point, which had three holding rooms and two additional small rooms.
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“If there were 40 people in one of those rooms, you wouldn't be able to sit down all at the same time,” Elfreth said.
“We looked through those big glass windows into what they call a holding area which clearly looked like a cell to me,” Mfume said.
The lawmakers say they will continue to push for transparency and accountability.
“We recognize that today it's somebody else, tomorrow it could in fact be one of us,” Mfume said.