Three Minnesota Democratic congresswomen said that they were denied access to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center in Minneapolis on Saturday morning.
In an interview with MS NOW after the incident, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said she and Reps. Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison were initially permitted to enter the building before being told they were not permitted to tour the facility.
"It looked like it might have been an order that maybe came from Washington to deny us the proper access that we needed to complete those duties that we are obligated as members of Congress," Omar said.
Members of Congress are permitted to conduct unannounced visits to federal detention facilities as part of their oversight powers over congressionally-appropriated funds. A DC court affirmed this right in a ruling last December after several congressmembers sued over being denied entry to facilities.
In an interview on MS NOW on Saturday afternoon, Craig called the refusal "completely nonsensical." The congresswoman said she brought a copy of a DC court ruling to show agents at the facility but that "they said they didn't care."
"We were told because this facility is being funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill, not the Congressional Appropriations Act, that we would not be able to enter the facility," Craig said.
Craig criticized the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) mass immigration crackdown effort in the state. The operation, which ICE said would be its "largest ever," reportedly included plans to deploy around 2,000 agents to the state.
"This is consistent with exactly what we're seeing on the streets by the Department of Homeland Security," Craig said. "ICE Barbie, Secretary Noem, she has told this agency to go rogue, to not follow the law, and frankly that's exactly what we experienced inside this detention center today."
The building has been the site of intense protests in recent days over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in the state. On Thursday, DHS said they arrested 11 protesters outside of the facility on "assault and obstruction charges."
Tensions reached a boiling point on Wednesday morning when an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in her car.
DHS claimed that Macklin Good "weaponized" her vehicle and said the ICE agent was acting in self-defense. However, local officials have refuted this explanation, citing video evidence of the altercation in which Macklin Good appears to turn her wheels away from the federal agents as she accelerates.
Craig called on Minnesotans to speak out against GOP representatives in the state and demand action.
"The Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security, they are lawless at this point," Craig said. "And I hope every single Minnesotan, especially who lives in a congressional district represented by a Republican, speaks out and calls their member of Congress now. It has to stop, and these Republican members have got to start speaking out."
While many Republican members of Congress have stood by the administration on this issue, several have already begun expressing skepticism around DHS's classification of this shooting as an act of self defense.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called DHS officials' decision to draw conclusions about the shooting in the early stages of an investigation "very unusual."
The Hill has reached out to DHS for comment.