U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is firing back at Democrat U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández after the New Mexico congresswoman claimed she was blocked from speaking with detainees during a tour of the Torrance County Detention Facility.
Leger Fernández, who represents New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District, posted Wednesday that she was at the Torrance County ICE Detention Facility “seeing for myself exactly what is happening inside.”
“I’ll keep you posted on what I find,” she wrote.
But after the visit, Leger Fernández went to KOB and claimed the tour was “very sterile,” accusing ICE and CoreCivic of doing “everything they can” to prevent her from speaking with detainees.
“Core and ICE were so mad, they insulted me in the process about daring to literally say hello to the inmates,” Leger Fernández told KOB, adding that officials were “terrified” of her having conversations with detainees because they were “afraid of what we’ll hear.”
ICE responded with a very different version of events.
“We were glad to host you, Congresswoman,” ICE wrote in a statement posted publicly after her visit. “For those curious, here’s what happened.”
According to ICE, Leger Fernández signed the agency’s Facility Visitation Agreement before the tour, agreeing to follow the rules governing conduct inside ICE facilities. One of those rules, the agency said, is that meetings with detainees must be scheduled ahead of time for the privacy of detainees and the safety of visitors.
ICE said field leadership welcomed the congresswoman and provided a tour specifically tailored to the areas she had requested to see, including visitor check-in, intake, kitchen and food preparation, and medical services.
The problem, according to ICE, began in the kitchen area.
During that portion of the tour, Leger Fernández allegedly asked to speak with certain detainees. ICE said she was reminded that without prior consent from detainees, her request could not be accommodated at that time.
“Instead of accepting this guidance, the Congresswoman began talking and shouting to them from a distance, telling the detainees who she was and attempting to get closer to them,” ICE wrote.
The agency said her behavior disrupted operations and required intervention by facility leadership.
“ICE maintains clear policies about acceptable conduct within its facilities, just like all other federal law enforcement agencies do,” the agency continued. “Those policies are made clear ahead of time to congressional visitors.”
The statement undercut Leger Fernández’s attempt to portray herself as a victim of secrecy and intimidation. ICE says she knew the rules, signed the agreement, received the tour she requested, then tried to bypass the process anyway.
The clash came as New Mexico Democrats and far-left activists are losing their minds over a recent ICE arrest outside La Familia Medical Center in Santa Fe.
KOB reported that a man taking his daughter to a doctor visit was arrested outside the clinic after leaving the facility and entering the public parking lot. The station reported that Leger Fernández said there were eight ICE detentions around Santa Fe that day.
The arrest quickly became a rallying cry for New Mexico’s anti-ICE left, with activists and politicians decrying federal enforcement near a health care facility.
But Source New Mexico reported that a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson described the man arrested, Edgar Chacon-Miranda, as a “criminal illegal alien” whose arrest was part of a “targeted enforcement operation.” DHS said his record included battery against a household member, criminal sexual penetration in the second degree, child abuse, and abandonment of a child. Source New Mexico reported that the charges stemmed from a 2018 case and were dropped because prosecutors failed to proceed within required time limits.
In other words, the case Democrats turned into an anti-ICE spectacle is not nearly as simple as the sob story they blasted across social media.
Leger Fernández still rushed to condemn the enforcement activity, claiming “there is no community in the United States that is safe” and attacking the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Source New Mexico reported that she also promoted legislation to restrict immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations” such as churches, schools, and clinics.
That same posture now appears to have followed her into the detention facility itself.
Rather than wait for scheduled detainee meetings or follow the conduct rules she agreed to, ICE says Leger Fernández tried to engage detainees from a distance and push closer to them during the tour.
CoreCivic, which operates the Torrance County Detention Facility, told KOB that the water at the facility comes from the same Estancia municipal system that serves the surrounding community and that staff drink the same water as those in custody. The company also said the facility operates under federal detention standards with ICE personnel onsite and is subject to regular audits and inspections.
Leger Fernández has said she and Rep. Melanie Stansbury plan to send follow-up questions to ICE about conditions inside the facility.
But ICE’s response makes clear the agency is not letting her frame the visit without pushback.
The bigger picture is obvious: New Mexico Democrats are turning immigration enforcement into political theater at every opportunity. First came the outrage over ICE arresting a man DHS described as a “criminal illegal alien.” Then came Leger Fernández’s dramatic detention-center visit. Then came ICE’s public rebuttal, accusing her of violating the very visitation rules she had signed.
For voters, the question is simple.
Should members of Congress follow the rules inside federal detention facilities, or should they get to disrupt operations for a political stunt?
ICE says Leger Fernández got the tour she requested. What she apparently did not get was permission to turn it into a show.
I believe ICE, not Leger Fernandez.