Is ICE acting within the law?

It feels like everyday we are hearing of more and more people being silently snatched from the streets by masked individuals who refuse to identify themselves or produce a warrant

The Department of Homeland Security has established a new policy that asks members of Congress to give ICE facilities “at least 72 hours in advance” of any planned visits. Congressional staff are required to provide a 24-hour notice. This comes after numerous Democratic government officials have been arrested outside federal immigration courts, Department of Homeland Security press conferences, and immigration detention facilities, or denied entry. The new policy also states that visitors may not “have any physical or verbal contact with any person in ICE detention facilities.”

However, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 states that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may not “prevent…a Member of Congress” or one of their employees "from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens” or to modify the facility in advance of such a visit.

Nor can DHS “require a Member of Congress to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility.”

So, the new protocol is somewhat in tension with federal law and poses some new legal questions.