U.S. Rep. Vasquez re-introduces immigration detention oversight bill in Congress

Yahoo

15-05-2025

U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez speaks in Las Cruces following a mass shooting on March 23, 2025 in Las Cruces that left three dead and 15 injured. (Leah Romero / Source NM)
Southern New Mexico's representative in the U.S. House of Representatives said Thursday he is introducing updated legislation intended to require federal immigration authorities to report their activities to Congress.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) held a news conference on Thursday alongside two community organizations to discuss what he called the 'Humane Accountability Act 2.0,' which would require the federal Department of Homeland Security to report to Congress all immigration detentions, removals and encounters that have occurred since January.
Vasquez said the new version of the bill is updated to 'reflect the times that we're in today,' specifically the U.S. government deporting people to foreign countries. He said the legislation would require DHS to report, with legal justifications, each detention, removal or transfer to 'non-traditional sites' like the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador or the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The bill also blocks surprise detentions at military bases, on tribal lands or overseas sites, requiring advanced notice with justification, including costs and care standards, he said.
The legislation would also mandate DHS to report on conditions in immigration detention centers for issues such as assaults, abuse, hospitalization and death, Vasquez said, along with complaints from detained people about access to legal representation or retaliation.
The congressman was joined by Lan Sena, policy director for the Center for Civic Policy, and Casey Mangan, a lawyer with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center's detention and asylum team.
Mangan said all three of New Mexico's ICE detention facilities – the Otero County Processing Center, the Cibola County Correctional Center and the Torrance County Detention Facility — are full.
'On top of worsening conditions in the facilities, we're seeing families and communities ripped apart by large-scale deportations, jamming people through the process without any due process,' he said.
Vasquez said detention centers like the one in Torrance County have shown substandard care for the people they hold, 'and DHS has to be held accountable, as well as the private prison corporations that operate these centers.'
'Due process, transparency and accountability are not optional in a democracy,' Vasquez said.
Vasquez said seven people have died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since January. He said the agency is detaining more than 52,000 people, far above its 41,500-person capacity, and is on track to spend more than Congress has allowed.
Mangan said not much has changed as a result of his organization's and the federal government's own documentation of abuses, neglect and deaths caused by ICE negligence in New Mexico.
'If anything, things have gotten worse,' Mangan said. 'There's a reason for that: Under current state law, these facilities operate without state oversight and functionally without any federal oversight.'
Sena, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, noted that May is Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian Heritage Month and said she is reminded of the deep history of injustices against immigrants in the U.S.
'Now, our community is facing dire threats as we are being detained without due process, nor receiving proper notification or information in their own languages, and potentially being sent to countries they have never lived in nor citizens of,' Sena said.
Sena said Vasquez's legislation 'shines a light on the darkest corners of our immigration system, and demands accountability from those in power,' and urged Congress to pass it.
Vasquez said he has very little faith that the Trump administration would sign the bill into law in the event Congress does pass it, but he will keep introducing it.
Mangan said the bill would be an important step toward guaranteeing the due process everyone has under the U.S. constitution, including migrants.
'Now, more than ever, we need to enforce the rule of law and support the important power that Congress has to provide a check on executive power,' he said.
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