Senator, county officials blast ICE for barring them from detention facility

Federal agents turned away state and local officials attempting to visit the Otay Mesa ICE detention center Friday afternoon, setting the stage for further legal clashes between the Trump administration and California authorities looking to counter its immigration crackdown. 

Agents told U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, San Diego County supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Paloma Aguirre they could not tour the facility, despite state and federal laws designed to give them access to the building. Lawson-Remer and Aguirre had been given prior authorization from officials at the facility, but were told that permission was revoked. 

The elected officials said in a news conference they hoped to inspect the detention facility after hearing reports that detainees did not have adequate access to clean water, nutritious food, and medical care. Lawson-Remer and Aguirre said they had also received signed letters from people detained in the facility who wished to meet with them to make complaints about the conditions in the center, but they were barred from visiting the detainees. 

A federal law allows members of Congress to inspect all federal detention facilities, and a California state law, passed in 2024, grants county officials access to centers within their jurisdiction, for the purpose of ensuring compliance with public health and sanitation regulations. Lawson-Remer and Aguirre arrived at the facility’s gates holding checklist packets with legal requirements for medical care, sanitation, and nutrition, that they intended to fill out as they visited the various sections of the detention center. 

But Lawson-Remer and Aguirre said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents there told them they would be forced to leave the premises, despite already receiving authorization from the local ICE field office and Core Civic, the private prison company that owns the Otay Mesa facility. They said the local agents told them officials from ICE headquarters in Washington had instructed them to keep their doors shut.

“We were threatened to be escorted out by our own sheriff,” Aguirre said. “They’re in clear violation of our authority.” She also said she was told she could not park her car in the facility’s parking lot. 

In a press release, Lawson-Remer and Aguirre said they are preparing to file a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, arguing it was illegal for the ICE officers at the Otay Mesa detention center to deny them access. 

This incident is just the latest in an ongoing power struggle between elected officials and the Trump administration, in which the Department of Homeland Security continues to deny elected officials access to ICE detention centers, despite laws intended to empower them to conduct inspections. 

Padilla said ICE officials told him he needed to submit a request to visit the site seven days prior to his arrival, despite a recent federal court order temporarily halting the seven-day requirement. Other members of Congress had pursued a case against the rule, arguing that federal law allows members of Congress to tour federal detention facilities at any time. Those congress members won a temporary stay of the rule in recent weeks.    

Padilla noted that his visit comes just after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s appearance at the San Diego border last week, in which she said conditions at the Otay Mesa facility were “very good.”

“If that’s the case, then what are they afraid of?” he said. “What do they have to hide?”