More than two weeks after being denied entry to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Baltimore, members of the Maryland congressional delegation said Wednesday that, based on the limited information they received during a facility tour, they believe people’s due process rights are being violated.

“I would like to make it clear that when we first came here 16 days ago, we were not here to protest. We were not here to sit on the floor,” said U.S. Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth, an Annapolis Democrat. “We were here, frankly, to exercise our congressional, legal right to conduct oversight.”

In late July, members of the Maryland congressional delegation were denied entry to the Baltimore ICE facility. ICE told The Baltimore Sun last month that the members hadn’t provided advance notice of their arrival and “were turned away for the safety and security of all personnel, as well as the safety of aliens currently in ICE custody.”

On Wednesday, Elfreth, Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Kweisi Mfume, all Democrats, took a guided tour of Baltimore’s ICE facility downtown. During the tour, they were not permitted to bring their cellphones to take photos or record what they saw.

“We just have to have transparency,” said Mfume. “One of the things we underscored is that we’re not here on behalf of any criminal, any lawbreaker, any gang member. We’re here on behalf of transparency.”

ICE officials did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

The downtown ICE office is publicized as a “holding facility,” which suggests detainees are held for up to 12 hours. Van Hollen, Mfume and Elfreth said that people are sometimes held there for 72 hours or more.

“What we saw here was clearly a detention center,” Van Hollen said outside of the downtown Baltimore facility.

Van Hollen said he has heard reports of people being held there for up to eight days. He criticized the terminology used to describe the facility, saying, “They want to claim it’s not a detention center. They just want to call it a holding facility. People get disappeared from here to the facilities without notice as to where they’re going or giving their family members (notice) at a quick pace.”

According to the members of the Maryland congressional delegation present at Wednesday’s tour, 84% of recent ICE detainees nationwide are classified as having “no threat level” and include faith leaders and small business owners.

“In other words, 84% of the people being detained across the country pose zero public threat, so they’re not focused on the worst-of-the-worst people,” said Van Hollen, referencing the Eastern Shore pastor, Daniel Fuentes Espinal, who was detained by ICE in July.

Van Hollen, Mfume and Elfreth said they were not allowed to speak to detainees during the visit Wednesday, with ICE officials citing Maryland law. There is no Maryland law prohibiting members of Congress from speaking with people who are detained.

The lawmakers said that they left with unanswered questions, including whether detainees have access to attorneys, medication, health services and communication with family members. They said ICE officials repeatedly responded that they would “get back” to them.

State officials have also been seeking data from ICE. During a recent meeting of the General Assembly’s Joint Federal Action Oversight Committee, Kamal Essaheb, director of the Governor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said that the state doesn’t have “official data” from ICE or the federal government. Based on analyses of Freedom of Information Act requests by academics, it’s estimated that “a little over 1,500” people in Maryland have been arrested by ICE since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20 — about 40% of whom have never been charged with or convicted of any crime, and about 20% of whom have been charged but not convicted.

The Maryland congressional delegation said they also asked ICE how many people had been detained, but did not receive an answer.

_____

©2025 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.