Oklahoma’s senior U.S. senator says he will be touring Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, though he doesn’t plan on bringing media and he’s giving advance notice.
Speaking just before a congressional forum held by the Tulsa Regional Chamber, Sen. James Lankford said he’s used his lawful privileges to request access to detention centers so that he can see what is going on inside.
“The administration has asked for a seven day advance lead to be able to go in,” Lankford said. “We’ve made some of those requests to make sure we can actually get in.”
A federal judge ruled earlier this month that the one week notice policy incorporated by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely violates the law. Section 527 of the FY2024 DHS Appropriations Act permits members of Congress to visit ICE facilities unannounced.
Lankford didn’t specify what detention centers he would be visiting, but said ICE should own their own prisons rather than companies like Geo Group, who obtained contracts from the feds via a no bid process.
“ICE should move from leasing to owning facilities. It’s better for the taxpayer long-term, we’re not actually paying for a lease,” Lankford said.
When Public Radio Tulsa asked how Lankford might communicate what he witnesses in the prisons, he said he would “follow up” with a “post.”
Oklahoma is home to at least three facilities holding people swept up in raids coordinated by the administration of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on aggressively reforming the country’s immigration policy. Advocates say his plans are an anecdote to a record number of Southwest border crossings under former President Joe Biden.
ICE’s secretive detention centers, which critics call concentration camps, are located in Watonga, Sayre, and Cushing.
Lankford claimed that 70% of detainees have criminal records but did not cite a source. ICE appears to have lost track of thousands of people on paper and their identities are not always known by the public in the first place. Many media outlets estimate the percentage to be much lower.
As local officials say their hands are tied when it comes to defying federal law around the standing up of such centers, the court of public opinion has played a critical part in defeating some prisons. Oklahoma City residents last month protested the conversion of a warehouse into an ICE holding facility and defeated the plan.
