In a surprise visit to Stockton’s immigration and enforcement facility on Wednesday, Rep. Josh Harder said he again left with few answers about the agency’s local activities.
The visit comes after what Harder describes as ICE’s “failure” to respond to his latest letter, where he renewed his demand for details on the agency’s local operations after months of hearing “troubling” reports from Stockton constituents. The letter gave ICE acting director David Venturella until Tuesday to respond.
“I just conducted a surprise inspection of the Stockton ICE facility to get face-to-face answers to the questions that this agency has been dodging for months, and I’m still outraged at the answers we’re not getting,” said Harder in a late afternoon news release, adding that the agency had been “dodging” his questions for months. “The chaos we’re seeing across the Valley proves that this agency is out of control.”
The visit was announced in the new release issued after the visit had taken place. Stocktonia did not receive advance notice of the site visit.
In a video just over a minute long posted after the visit, Harder said ICE staff attempted to assure him that the agency was operating appropriately — an explanation he said conflicts with what he has heard from community members.
“ICE, unsurprisingly, told me they were doing everything right,” said Harder in the video. “But that’s not what I heard.”
The facility, at 603 San Juan Ave. in west Stockton, was first visited by Harder (D-Tracy) in late January, when he had received “nonanswers” from staff and described cramped, holding cells seemingly only fit to hold one person.
Harder, in the social media video, said his latest visit was prompted by questions he had received from the surrounding community, including concerns that detainees at the Stockton facility were not receiving medications such as insulin in a timely manner and whether detainees were being given adequate access to doctors or lawyers.
Constituents had also raised concerns about ICE’s enforcement actions that they say occurred near schools or churches, Harder continued in the video. The Biden administration had previously protected such areas from immigration enforcement, a policy President Donald Trump has since rescinded.
Harder’s video does not indicate whether he plans to make another visit. However, the California congressman said he is committed to not voting for “a single dollar” toward the agency.
“I got a couple answers to my questions,” Harder said in the video, though he did not specify which questions he was referring to. “But not much.”
Harder’s earlier visit came with advance notice, unlike Wednesday’s unannounced visit. Immigration detention facilities face little local accountability, but federal law gives members of Congress the unique authority to inspect the sites themselves at any time. In the past, such visits have led to allegations of human rights abuses.
The Trump administration in the past year attempted to restrict such visits by requiring advance notice, leading to a lawsuit that attempted to restore lawmakers’ rights to visit.