BROADVIEW, Ill. (WLS) — Monday’s visit was the first by a member of Congress not just since the beginning of the Department of Homeland Security’s Chicago-area immigration operation “Midway Blitz,” but according to Rep. Lauren Underwood, in several years. It is one Underwood says she has been requesting for months.

Underwood walked out of the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility on Monday afternoon after a more than 90-minute visit. The visit took place with no detainees or detention officers present, as an updated security system is being installed.

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“It looks terrible. It’s not a place where you want to spend time,” Underwood said. “Each holding cell had a toilet. The toilet was not, in anyway, anything that any one of us would be comfortable using in an area that is open to others.”

Underwood is the senior most House Democrat in charge of funding for Homeland Security. On Monday, she blasted DHS for not allowing her or other members of the Illinois Congressional delegation in before Monday.

“They said ‘No,’ several times. And yet, they want more money,” Underwood said.

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The visit comes nearly three weeks after a federal judge ordered the facility to clean up its act. During the height of operation “Midway Blitz,” the processing center was housing dozens of people at any given time, under conditions that were deemed by some to be inhumane.

“I think the government has gotten itself into a jam by rounding up as many people as they have without having facilities to maintain them at,” said a plaintiff’s attorney, Nate Eimer with Eimer Stahl LLP.

This sketch released by the government in the course of the ongoing litigation shows an outline of the facility’s holding cells. The congresswoman’s staff was not allowed to take photographs during Monday’s visit.

“It left me feeling like there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” Underwood said. “The way immigrants and U.S. citizens have been treated here is unacceptable, and it doesn’t make us more safe.”

Underwood said that despite the fact that the facility no longer appears to be housing people overnight, they are looking to triple their staff and increase office space, a sign that immigration enforcement actions in Chicago may ramp up once again at some point in the future.

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