Immigration and Customs Enforcement argued that it no longer has to grant on-demand visits to its facilities to Democratic members of Congress due to resource constraints resulting from the government shutdown.
Since President Donald Trump retook office and increasingly emboldened ICE, the agency has wrestled with Democratic members of Congress over access to its facilities. ICE lawyers argued that it now doesn’t have the capability to give Democrats access due to the shutdown, court documents showed.
“With the lapse in appropriations following the expiration of the FY2025 Continuing Resolution at 12:00 A.M. on October 1, 2025, ICE is no longer funding the operation of its detention facilities (including the adoption and implementation of the Congressional visitation protocols at issue in this action) with any funds that were appropriated subject to Section 527,” ICE attorneys wrote in a court filing, referring to the law that requires on-demand visits from lawmakers.
The comments were made in a lawsuit filed by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO). Democratic lawmakers have sued the agency over its resistance to lawmaker visits, often accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric against ICE. Several major Democratic officials, including Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Reps. John Larson (D-CT), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), and Robin Kelly (D-IL).
Larson went a step further and called ICE “the SS,” referring to the Nazi Schutzstaffel, the criminal organization responsible for the Holocaust and extermination campaigns on the Eastern Front of World War II.
ICE reportedly informed the offices of members of Congress that it would no longer be allowing visits due to the government shutdown.
“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,” an aide to one congressional office affected by the policy change told Politico.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PLEDGES TO ‘SURGE’ ICE OPERATIONS AFTER RECRUITMENT SPIKE
When asked for a comment, ICE’s Office of Congressional Relations replied with an auto-email saying it couldn’t respond due to the shutdown.
“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 peform other work-related duties. Once funding is restored, normal operations will resume and incoming inquires will be reviewed on a first-in, first-out basis,” it said.
