Violent protests unfolded over the weekend in Los Angeles after days of controversial immigration raids and arrests. Tempers flared even more after President Donald Trump deployed the California National Guard to the city; the first time a president has done that without the request of a governor in decades.
Government officials, including California Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), are also getting caught up in the chaos as demonstrations against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continue.
Immigration agents refused to allow Waters to enter the Metropolitan Detention Center on Sunday, slamming the door of the facility in her face. She was trying to visit David Huerta, the head of the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, Los Angeles local, who was arrested at the weekend protests as he was observing the raids on Friday.
“Hello, hello, hello. I just came to use my Congressional authority to check on David Huerta,” Waters told agents guarding the door at the Los Angeles facility in a CNN video posted to social media.
They turned their backs on her and quickly went inside the center, closing the door in her face.
“Excuse me, I need to get in,” Waters insisted. An agent told her to contact their public affairs office, something an officer would tell a journalist, not a sitting Congresswoman. Congress has broad authority over ICE because of its constitutional power to regulate immigration and foreign policy.
Waters tried pulling the door open, but agents slammed it in her face. “I just want to see David Herta,” Waters told a reporter as she turned away. Waters also said a member of Congress is normally able to enter federal immigration detention centers.
“I don’t know why he was targeted. I don’t know what they’re doing with him. I don’t know whether they’re going to deport him. I want to report back to my caucus about what’s happening,” she said.
“Charges need to be brought against these ICE officials immediately for denying her congressional authority,” an X user posted after the incident.
But Trump’s MAGA base expressed glee that Waters was denied entrance. “It’s a publicity stunt,” another one posted.
“Sorry but just saying you have ‘congressional authority’ doesn’t give you congressional authority,” said one user.
“You’re right, but she does have congressional authority; the GOP-controlled Congress passed a law enabling members of Congress to show up at any government facility, without notice, and conduct inspections,” a supporter said.
“She has no more authority to force her way in there than you do.”
“Individual congressional representatives have no authority to show up at executive branch facilities and demand access. Congress as a whole can do that, or vote to empower one or more to do that, but she can’t unilaterally claim oversight powers.”
According to the Appropriations Act of 2024, members of Congress can technically visit ICE detention facilities without prior notice. The law grants designated House and Senate lawmakers oversight and says they do not need prior notice to visit these facilities, but it also specifies that the Department of Homeland Security requires a 24-hour notice, which it does.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement to the Guardian that “at the time lawmakers tried to enter the federal building, more than 1,000 rioters had surrounded the building”.
The spokesperson said, in part, that “the lawmakers were turned away in the interest of their safety and the safety of our law enforcement”.
Waters also questioned Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops.
“I don’t know why we have guns!” Waters said in an interview with a CNN reporter. “What are those guns for? Are they to shoot protesters?”
She also called Trump “dishonorable.” “I mean, there’s no reason to be here with the National Guard,” she said. “The President of the United States is a cruel, dishonorable human being who would just assume they’ll shoot somebody down. But I don’t want that to happen.”
