Overview

• On August 6, Reps. Adriano Espaillat, Nydia Velázquez and Dan Goldman attempted an unannounced inspection of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and were refused entry.
• Officials locked the facility’s gates behind the lawmakers for roughly 20–30 minutes after citing a new DHS directive mandating at least seven days’ advance notice.
• MDC Brooklyn is operated by the Bureau of Prisons under an ICE contract and currently houses over 100 immigrant detainees amid longstanding complaints of overcrowding and poor conditions.
• The Department of Homeland Security disputes that the members were trapped and insists they did not comply with the established notice requirement meant to safeguard executive-branch operations.
• Lawmakers and civil-rights groups have vowed to resume surprise visits and are demanding a federal probe of the ICE–BOP agreement at the detention center.