ICE barred Reps. Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs from interviewing detainees during unannounced Otay Mesa oversight visit

On May 12, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to let U.S. Representatives Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs interview detained immigrants during their unannounced oversight visit to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. ICE staff permitted the lawmakers to tour the facility but declined to let them speak with the people held there, citing a newly issued agency policy that requires members of Congress to name in advance the detainees they wish to interview and to produce signed consent forms for each. Because lawmakers cannot learn who is detained before they arrive, the requirement made an unannounced interview impossible. It was the second consecutive visit at which Levin and Jacobs were barred from speaking with detainees.

"Every time there's a new reason or excuse, but it is completely unacceptable that we aren't allowed to speak to our constituents who are here," Jacobs said. Levin said the restriction was "part of an effort by ICE to try to come up with reasons that members of Congress should not be allowed to do oversight without prior announcement." The named-detainee policy the agency applied was set out in a nationwide memo issued the same day by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, separately recorded in this archive; this entry records the concrete denial of access that followed, in which the agency used the policy to block a specific oversight inquiry rather than the issuance of the rule itself. Federal appropriations law bars using appropriated funds to prevent a member of Congress from entering and inspecting a Department of Homeland Security detention facility.