{"id":403074,"date":"2025-11-25T07:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403074\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T07:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:14:14","slug":"san-diego-congress-members-find-nearly-empty-ice-detention-facility-during-scheduled-inspection-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403074\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego congress members find nearly empty ICE detention facility during scheduled inspection \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the San Diego Democratic congressional delegation were granted access to inspect an immigration detention facility inside the Edward J. Schwartz federal building in downtown San Diego on Monday, after having been turned away on two previous occasions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers had asked for access to check the conditions, as they had received reports of an increase in detentions on site. After pushing for entry for weeks, they visited on Monday and found three people detained there and said the facility was clean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that we were finally able to get down there,\u201d U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas told reporters\u00a0following the visit. \u201cIt does leave a lot of suspicion in my mind as to what was there before, why weren\u2019t we allowed to go in. We gave all the notices that we were supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vargas and Rep. Scott Peters first tried<\/a> to conduct an inspection Oct. 20, but they were told they needed to provide more days of notice.\u00a0 A week later, they returned with Reps. Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs. Federal officials then said there was no staff available to process the request due to the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

Members of Congress are allowed to conduct oversight at any facility operated by or for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security \u201cused to detain or otherwise house\u201d immigrants, as stated<\/a> in federal law.<\/p>\n

After the 43-day shutdown ended, the delegation insisted on visiting the facility to see the conditions under which people were detained. On Monday, they were received by the local leadership of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials said.<\/p>\n

ICE did not respond in time for publication to questions regarding the visit or the detention facility.<\/p>\n

Levin said that federal officials told them that the most people detained at the basement facility at one time this year was 68, and that the facility\u2019s capacity is 122 people. But officials said they will request confirmation of such numbers in writing.<\/p>\n

Three people were being held at the facility when the delegation arrived on Monday, Vargas said, including a man who worked as a plumber and had been arrested two hours earlier.<\/p>\n

The building houses immigration courtrooms, as well as an ICE office. Detainees include some people taken into custody during regular check-ins with ICE, as well as some people who show up for scheduled green card interviews at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building nearby, according to volunteers and immigration attorneys.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers said the facility was clean, though they noted that the staff knew they were coming on Monday. They described the holding cells as rooms of various sizes that had metal benches and a toilet, and that\u00a0it was very cold there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we left feeling frustrated,\u201d said Peters. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t we see this before?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobs gave credit to the community activists and leaders who had reported concerns about deteriorating conditions at the detention facility\u00a0so that members of Congress can follow up and ask questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m glad that we didn\u2019t see hundreds of people in the basement, it doesn\u2019t mean that our oversight is done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers said they intend to eventually return to conduct another inspection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the San Diego Democratic congressional delegation were granted access to inspect an immigration detention facility inside…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":403075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,8315,409,1370,728,50,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-403074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-downtown-san-diego","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-san-diego-county","18":"tag-sandiego","19":"tag-top-stories-sdut","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115609106267486498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}