Maryland lawmakers denied entrance to Baltimore ICE detention facility, stage sit-in

Jeff Barker, Baltimore Sun on Jul 28, 2025

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BALTIMORE — Frustrated members of Maryland’s congressional delegation appealed unsuccessfully to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official for permission to tour a temporary detention facility in Baltimore, staging an impromptu sit-in in a hallway after waiting for hours to be let in.

“We expect, quite frankly, that we will be allowed entrance,” Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Baltimore Democrat, said to an ICE official on the sixth floor of the Fallon Federal Building. A locked door blocked Mfume from inspecting conditions inside the holding facility that the five lawmakers, all Democrats, hoped to inspect following constituent complaints about inadequate conditions.

Nikita Baker, the acting field office director, refused to allow the lawmakers inside despite their assertions that a 2024 federal law explicitly grants them permission. An ICE spokesperson in Washington had no immediate response to The Baltimore Sun’s questions, which the agency said would be referred to its “Maryland team.”

The White House responded to a Sun reporter on X by saying, “No one defends criminal illegal aliens quite like Democrats.” And Rep. Andy Harris, the lone Republican in the Maryland delegation, said on X, “Spare us the show. We stand with ICE and their mission to keep Maryland safe.”

The encounter on Monday reflects continued tension between Maryland Democrats and the Republican Trump administration, particularly over immigration issues. The Baltimore facility is the one in which Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained until being mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March.

Congressional Democrats have seized upon the sheet metal worker’s case as an example of the administration’s lawlessness and callousness towards immigrants’ rights. The administration has called Abrego Garcia a gang member and human trafficker who should not be set free in the United States.

The five Maryland lawmakers had written to ICE last week informing it in a letter of their intent to visit. They cited a 2024 law permitting Congress members to enter such a facility unannounced “for the purpose of conducting oversight.”

After arriving at the federal building, Mfume and the other members — Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, and Reps. Sarah Elfreth, Johnny Olszewski Jr., and Glenn Ivey — waited in a hallway for about 20 minutes.

“Would you let people know that we’re out here,” Van Hollen told a man entering the office.

After a few more minutes, the impatient Congress members sat down on the floor near a door reading “WELCOME. Enforcement and Removal Operations” as they waited for Baker to emerge and meet with them in the hallway.

The lawmakers pelted Baker with questions about her refusal to open the door.

“So you’ll let lawyers come in but not Congress?” Ivey, a Prince George’s County Democrat, asked Baker in the corridor.

“They can speak to their clients, yes,” Baker replied,

“But we can’t speak to our constituents,” said Elfreth, the Anne Arundel and Howard County representative.

“This building belongs to the people,” Alsobrooks told reporters after leaving the building. “This is not Donald Trump’s building.”

In May, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement “reminding” Congress members and staff that they “need to comply with facility rules, procedures, and instructions from ICE personnel on site for their own safety, the safety of the detainees, and the safety of ICE employees.”

The directive followed the indictment of Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey over a physical altercation with an ICE agent at a detention facility in May. She pleaded not guilty.

Monday wasn’t the first time Maryland lawmakers had been denied entrance to a federal building. This once-unusual occurrence has become more common as partisan divisions have sharpened between Trump and Democrats.

In February, several Maryland Democrats were stopped from entering the U.S. Department of Education’s headquarters, although Education Secretary Linda McMahon came outside to address the media. The lawmakers were protesting significant budget and staff cuts.

On Monday, Ivey, a former state’s attorney for Prince George’s County, pressed Baker on who had told her not to allow a congressional visit.

“You won’t tell us who gave you that directive,” Ivey told her. “Did you get something in writing that told you not to do it?”

“We’re told that nobody is allowed,” Baker responded. “You do not have oversight.”

“We do have oversight,” said Mfume, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations. “We’re on a committee of oversight.”

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