Three Democratic congressional lawmakers who represent Minnesota said they were denied access to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Reps. Angie Craig, Ilhan Omar and Kelly Morrison told reporters that they were initially allowed into the building, but then informed they must leave.
“Shortly after we were let in, two officials came in and said that they received a message that we were no longer allowed to be in the building, and that they were rescinding the invitation to come in and declining any further access from the building,” Omar told reporters while standing outside the facility.
Added Craig, “The response was that, since the funding for this center came from the one ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ not the congressional appropriations bill, that they were denying our access.”
Morrrison said in her own social media post that conducting oversight of “American taxpayer-funded facilities is not only our legal right, but our constitutional duty.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to CBS News Minnesota that lawmakers are required to provide seven days notice of congressional visits.
“For the safety of detainees and staff, and in compliance with the agency’s mandate, the Members of Congress were notified that their visit was improper and out of compliance with existing court orders and policies which mandate that members of Congress must notify ICE at least seven days in advance of Congressional visits,” McLaughlin wrote. “Because they were out of compliance with this mandate, Representative Omar and her colleagues were denied entry to the facility.”
McLaughlin added that Omar, Craig and Morrison “must follow the proper guidelines” if they want to tour the facility.
The building has been the command center for federal agents in Minnesota. Concrete barriers were set up near the facility on Friday morning, less than a day after a tense protest where federal officers fired pepper balls and surged into a crowd of demonstrators.
CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman was reporting in the area during the protest when officers pushed into the crowd behind a cloud of chemical irritants, triggering shoving, panic and screams among the protesters.
Thursday’s protest and others across Minnesota and the nation come in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good in south Minneapolis by an ICE officer Wednesday.