An Inland Empire lawmaker is demanding answers after she said “chemical agents” were used against her and members of Congress who were illegally denied access to a federal building.
In a Thursday, June 12, letter, Rep. Norma Torres, D-Pomona, said she went to the emergency room and must take medication after the Saturday, June 7, incident at the Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles.
RELATED: Sen. Alex Padilla forcibly removed from Secretary Kristi Noem’s Los Angeles press conference
The letter to Acting Director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement Todd Lyons seeks “prompt answers” as to why chemicals were used, who ordered their use and why Torres’ delegation was denied entry to Roybal.
ICE media contacts did not immediately respond Thursday afternoon to emails seeking comment.
According to Torres, four members of Congress went to Roybal at 8:30 a.m. Saturday seeking information about people in federal immigration custody at the building.
In her letter, Torres wrote the visit stemmed from “reports of violent encounters involving ICE agents and unidentified bystanders during raids at multiple locations in Los Angeles County, as well as reports of dangerous overcrowding at the facility.”
The 15 or so people in the delegation, according to Torres, included members of Congress, their staff, lawyers, media and representatives of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the Central American Resource Center.
“Rather than accommodating the request, as required under law, we were denied access to the facility under a false pretext,” Torres said. “Contrary to ICE’s public claim that over 1,000 protesters were present, this was a small, peaceful delegation.”
The “false characterization” of the delegation “appears designed to justify the dangerous and unjustified deployment of chemical agents — multiple times,” Torres wrote.
Torres’ letter didn’t specify what chemicals were used.
“As a result of ICE’s actions, I was admitted to the Emergency Room for respiratory treatment, observation and now must take medication.”
Members of Congress have a legal right to visit federal detention facilities, Torres wrote. She added that no one helped people who dropped off medication for those being detained in Roybal.
Torres also criticized what she said was ICE’s failure to update its online detainee database.
“In numerous cases, families were forced to file missing persons reports, contact local hospitals, and travel to facilities in search of information about detained loved ones — all of which could have been avoided with timely and accurate data reporting,” the lawmaker wrote.
The Roybal visit came the same day as ICE raids in Paramount and elsewhere that led to clashes between protesters and federal agents.
Over the strong objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and California’s Democratic leaders, President Donald Trump has deployed the California National Guard and Marines to LA as protests continue and a curfew for part of downtown LA is in effect.
Other members of Congress reported being shut out of federal immigration facilities.
On Sunday, June 8, three Southern California congressional Democrats were denied entry to an ICE processing facility near Victorville in San Bernardino County’s High Desert.
Torres’ letter came the same day as federal agents forcibly removed U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, after he tried to ask questions of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem during a Los Angeles news conference.
