ICE Denied Us From Conducting Oversight
Last June, Caroline Dias Goncalves, a then 20-year-old Dreamer who has been living in the U.S. since she was seven years old, was pulled over during a traffic stop in Colorado. She was illegally arrested by ICE and detained in the Aurora ICE detention facility for 15 harrowing days.
Caroline’s story is a powerful reminder that immigration policy isn’t some abstract political debate. It affects real people, our neighbors, and our communities. And when government agencies like ICE abuse their power, the consequences are devastating.
America has always been a nation of immigrants. But too often our immigration system fails to live up to our values. Instead of creating a system that upholds basic decency and the rule of law, President Trump and MAGA Republicans continue pouring billions of dollars into these failing agencies while refusing to fix the underlying problems. Rather than demanding accountability, Republicans are pushing to dramatically expand ICE’s detention capacity.
That’s what brought me to Hudson, CO.
Keep up with our fight for a better immigration system on our Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Bluesky, and TikTok accounts.
By now you’ve probably heard about Trump’s disastrous “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which slashed nearly $1 trillion from health care programs that help millions of vulnerable Americans to help pay for more tax cuts for billionaires. But buried in that same bill was a massive expansion of immigration detention and enforcement: $45 billion for detention facilities and billions more for ICE and deportation operations.
We fought that bill every step of the way. And when ICE announced it was awarding a $39 million no-bid contract to a private prison operator to convert the dormant Big Horn Correctional Facility in Hudson into a massive detention center, we started demanding answers.
For weeks, my team and I have been asking ICE for basic information about this facility. At every turn, we’ve been stonewalled.
Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of ICE detention facilities. And you – the public – deserve transparency from agencies that hold enormous power over your lives and your taxpayer dollars.
We tried to conduct congressional oversight – ICE said no. When we showed up anyway, they refused to let us into the Hudson facility.
If you ever want to know whether something is above board, follow the sunlight. There can be no accountability without transparency.
Which raises a basic question: What is ICE hiding?
Unfortunately, this kind of obstruction is becoming all too common. Just this week, a fellow United States Senator was tear-gassed while attempting to conduct congressional oversight at an immigration detention facility in New Jersey. That’s unacceptable.
It’s why I won’t send ICE or CBP one more cent as they continue violating our fundamental rights.
We know this fight won’t be easy. Still, it’s impossible not to be inspired by Dreamers like Caroline. After her wrongful detention, Caroline joined a lawsuit that successfully challenged unlawful ICE arrest practices in Colorado.
Caroline was my guest at this year’s State of the Union address. Watch our full conversation on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Bluesky, and TikTok.
Caroline’s courage helped secure a major legal victory requiring ICE to retrain agents and curb unlawful arrests in Colorado. But the responsibility shouldn’t fall on her.
Republicans need to join with us in ending ICE’s lawlessness and fixing our broken immigration system – now.
The Hudson facility is not open yet, but if it does, we will be back. We won’t stop demanding answers and fighting to hold ICE accountable.