Democrats Castro, Crockett set out to visit detention center housing family detained in Minnesota

DILLEY, Texas (AP) — Democratic Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett on Wednesday set out to visit the Texas facility holding a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father whose detention has fueled protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

Castro said he and Crockett, who is also a U.S. Senate candidate, planned to meet with the family, who were sent to Texas after they were detained in a Minneapolis suburb last week. Castro said he also planned to speak with others being held at the facility in Dilley, where some detainees have described poor conditions.

Dozens of protesters waved signs and flags outside the South Texas Family Residential Center, where detainees inside staged their own demonstration over the weekend.

“We’re going to find out in a little bit whether they’re going to honor their word, what they said they would allow us to do, what we are legally entitled as members of Congress to do, which is to check on the welfare of these folks,” Castro said in a video posted on social media.

The trip is part of Democrats’ midterm-election year effort to conduct congressional oversight and highlight the consequences of the President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Administration officials have previously denied some members of Congress entry to federal detention facilities, though Castro said detainees in Dilley have been allowed by the administration — or its private contractor running the facility — to sign up to meet him and Crockett.

Some members of Congress denied entry previously

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, into custody Jan. 20 in Minneapolis as part of a sweeping operation that has wrenched the city and spawned massive protests from residents. Two U.S. citizens have been shot and killed by federal officers during the operation.

A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary order prohibiting the Trump administration from removing Ramos and Arias from the U.S. as their detention is challenged.

Democrats have criticized the Trump administration over their lack of access to ICE facilities.

Minnesota Reps. Angie Craig, Kelly Morrison and Ilhan Omar were denied access to detainees at a federal building outside Minneapolis on Jan. 10. The Department of Homeland Security has said the three Democrats did not comply with a new policy to give facilities seven days notice.

The same policy was invoked to deny Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, from entering the Dilley facility and another in Pearsall, Texas, last week. Murphy said the denials keep Congress from fulfilling its constitutional and statutory responsibility to conduct oversight of executive branch facilities.

A federal judge earlier this month declined to step in and force the administration to yield to lawmakers’ demands for better access.

Democrats looking for ways to push back

Castro, a prominent member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a recent video of running a “lawless” immigration enforcement operation that is effectively a “bounty hunter organization.”

Like Castro, Crockett and her Senate Democratic primary rival, state Rep. James Talarico, are among the Democrats calling for Noem’s impeachment. Crockett also voted against a pending appropriations bill that would fund Noem’s department and the immigration enforcement agencies that fall under it.

“We absolutely have to clean house,” she said in a Saturday debate with Talarico. “Whatever that looks like, I’m willing to do it.”

The Republican-controlled House passed the DHS funding bill with the help of a handful of Democrats, days before 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti was killed. Several Senate Democrats said after Pretti’s death that they would not approve DHS funding, even if it means a partial government shutdown starting this weekend.

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Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Barrow reported from Atlanta.