WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement claimed in a new report to congressional appropriators about detention that immigrants had “unabated” access to lawyers during the pandemic — though the agency admitted it does not track legal visits or access violations at its facilities.
The report, submitted to the House and Senate Homeland Security appropriations subcommittees and obtained by CQ Roll Call, was compiled following a mandate in the fiscal 2021 spending package for the Department of Homeland Security. The order requires ICE to submit a report to the appropriations panels “on overall access for attorneys and detainee representatives to ICE facilities.”
Congress in the fiscal 2021 law instructed the agency to include the number of legal visits “denied or not facilitated” as well as how many detention centers do not meet the agency’s standards of communications between immigrants and their lawyers.
