Trump government imposes new limits on parliamentary visits to immigration centers

The new guidelines say that this law does not apply to Ice field offices, although immigrants are often detained in the ICE field offices before they are transferred to an agency’s arrest. ICE is now demanding congressional members to warn at least 72 hours in advance before a visit.

US Republican President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, in part with the promise made to voters to deport millions of immigrants, including those in the US seeking asylum. He also tried to deport international students who are legally in the US and who have pro-Palestinian opinions.

The guidelines mentioned that Congress members need not warn before a visit to an ICE detention center, but now they claim that ICE has “unique and irrevocable discretionary power to deny a request or cancel, reschedule or terminate an excursion or visit” for any reason. ICE will make “all efforts to comply with the law and accommodate” Congress parliamentarians, the guidelines say.

Some Democratic politicians, who oppose Trump’s repression against immigrants, were in heated confrontations with ICE agents outside immigrant detention centers in various US states.

This month, the Trump administration said it is suing Mrs Lamonica Mciver, a New Jersey Democrat, because of a fight at the gate of an immigrant detention center on May 9, when parliamentarians were trying to make a supervision visit.

In recent weeks, ICE agents have also arrested local democratic politicians, including Mayor Ras Baraka, New Jersey, and New York City account auditor Brad Lander at ICE facilities.