BURLINGTON — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Lori Trahan conducted an unannounced visit to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Burlington Tuesday, their first surprise visit since ICE was compelled in court to allow such visits earlier this year.
In a joint statement released Wednesday, Trahan and Warren said they exercised their “constitutional responsibilities to conduct oversight” when they made the visit.
“Immigration attorneys and community advocates have shared deeply worrisome testimonies with our offices of individuals being detained by ICE for multiple days without access to adequate food, medical care, or sleeping conditions,” said the two members of Congress. “During the hour-long inspection of the Burlington facility, we walked through every part of the area in which people are detained. We witnessed over two dozen individuals held for processing, questioned ICE regarding our constituents’ concerns, and pressed for more humane treatment of those in custody.”
They said they would “continue showing up and fighting for transparency, decency, and accountability.”
The two join the ranks of other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to conduct a surprise visit to the facility since a court ruled earlier this year that ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, cannot prevent lawmakers from inspecting their facilities even without the visit being prearranged.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton made a similar visit last month, though he claimed to have been prevented from going beyond the facility’s lobby for about 30 minutes while his staff observed multiple vans leaving the property. Moulton had conducted an unannounced visit last year as well, before DHS began barring lawmakers from making surprise inspections. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern have made similar visits to the building this year.
The string of inspections and prearranged tours by lawmakers at the Burlington ICE building stems from reports of poor conditions for immigrant detainees inside the building, which has been a home to ICE operations since 2007. After President Donald Trump returned to office last year, the building became a focal point in the discourse over his immigration crackdown due to it being where most detained immigrants are brought first when they are arrested by ICE in Massachusetts.
It has also turned into the focus of local protests against ICE, with multiple groups holding weekly demonstrations going back to spring 2025 when the initial reports about the conditions inside began to emerge.
Those groups include Bearing Witness, which began protesting every Wednesday at the facility that April, and Justice 4 All Thursdays at ICE, which began its weekly demonstrations last September.
Both groups gathered at their usual spot on a grassy area across from the building’s entrance Wednesday for what they called “Hold ICE in Contempt Day,” which organizers said was aimed at urging judges in Massachusetts to “to hold ICE accountable for violations of court orders.”
Jared Berezin, one of the organizers of the Bearing Witness protests, and Todd Palmer, who started Justice 4 All Thursdays, stood together at the demonstration Wednesday and listed a number of incidents in American history where court orders were used against activists.
“When a judge orders ICE officials not to transfer an individual out of Massachusetts, but ICE defies that order and flies them out of [Hanscom Air Force Base] no one is held in contempt,” said Berezin. “When a judge orders ICE to produce a detainee’s arrest warrant and ICE refuses, no one is held in contempt. When a judge orders ICE to release someone but ICE officials keep them locked up anyway, no one is held in contempt. If any of us were to defy an order from a judge we would be fined and jailed, yet judges in Massachusetts and across the country treat ICE officials as if they are exempt from judicial authority.”
Palmer said he and Berezin are “calling for accountability in the courts.”
“We need our federal judges in Massachusetts and across this country to use their powers of contempt. We are not calling for judicial activism, we are calling for judicial action,” said Palmer.
Original article
Comments