At least a dozen Democratic members of Congress have been denied entry to federal immigration facilities this year when they showed up to conduct oversight as President Donald Trump has ramped up his mass deportation efforts—and now they are suing the Trump administration.

The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia on July 30 by 12 Democrats from the House of Representatives, including El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who has provided oversight of such facilities for several years.

“As part of its campaign of mass deportation, the Trump-Vance administration has stretched the U.S. immigration detention system far beyond its capacity. More people are being held by the United States in immigration detention than ever before, with many facilities housing more individuals than they were built to contain,” the lawsuit states. “Reports of mistreatment have been widespread and have included disturbing details of overcrowding, food shortages, lack of adequate medical care, and unsanitary conditions.” 

Since 2019, Congress has adopted statutory provisions stating that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may not use federal funds may to prevent members  “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house” noncitizens, per the lawsuit. Those mandates for unfettered oversight were a direct response to Trump’s attempts to block members of Congress under his first administration.

However, since June, several members of Congress have been turned away when attempting to enter and examine federal immigration facilities, including privately run detention centers and ICE field offices where immigrants have been detained.

Escobar currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Homeland Security, which oversees DHS. In her six years serving Congress, she and her staff members have conducted numerous visits to DHS facilities, and identified issues that saved taxpayers money or improved facility conditions for detainees. Prior to this year, she had only been turned away once, in 2019, from a facility when attempting to conduct oversight. 

“It is not acceptable for the Trump administration to ignore the law and limit Congressional oversight and authority; this cannot go unchallenged,” Escobar said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

U.S. Representative Greg Casar, an Austin Democrat, is among the latest members of Congress to be turned away when requesting to conduct oversight duties. On August 15, Casar attempted to access the Don T. Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, which is operated by DHS contractor CoreCivic, to conduct oversight after receiving complaints that the air conditioning was not functioning properly and that detainees were “boiling.” The congressman, along with Austin-based attorney Andrea Jarero, who was trying to visit a client, were both denied access by CoreCivic. 

When journalists, activists, Casar and his staff arrived at the detention facility, CoreCivic employees had blocked off access to the building’s parking lot with traffic cones and two white vans. A CoreCivic employee exited his vehicle, and told Casar he’d need to schedule any visits at least seven days in advance.

“This advance notice is necessary to ensure proper scheduling and to avoid any intrusion on the President’s Article II authority to oversee executive department functions,” the employee said, reading from a piece of paper.

The statutory provisions of recent DHS appropriations bills explicitly say that they may not “be construed to require a Member of Congress to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a [DHS] facility.” 

However, per the lawsuit, the Trump administration has unilaterally enacted a new policy that requires seven calendar days’ notice ahead of any visit to a DHS facility.

“What are they hiding, if they will break the law and not let a member of Congress in?” Casar said. “What are they hiding if they’ll violate constitutional rights and not let a lawyer in?”

Casar said that he intends to join his fellow Democratic members of Congress as a plaintiff in the lawsuit—though he has not done so yet. 

A CoreCivic employee at the Hutto detention facility reads a prepared statement denying access to Congressman Greg Casar on August 15, 2025. (Photo: Francesca D’Annunzio)

Texas has the largest immigration detention capacity in the country, putting the state on the front lines of Trump’s mass deportation agenda. As of early August, more than 13,000 immigrants were detained in Texas facilities, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC)—far more than any other state. That number will likely continue to grow: a new, $1.24 billion immigration detention camp opened last week on Fort Bliss, a military base in El Paso, and is poised to be the nation’s largest once it reaches its full capacity to hold 5,000 people. (Escobar was allowed to access that facility on August 18, and said it held 1,000 detainees at that time, though she was not able to speak to any.)

Recent events bring new urgency to immigration detention inspections: as of late June, 13 people had died in ICE detention this fiscal year—which is the same amount of deaths for the entirety of fiscal year 2024. (A report from several advocacy groups found that dozens of deaths between 2017 and 2021 in ICE detention facilities could have been prevented with adequate medical care.) 

Additionally, more people are detained in ICE custody than ever before, and that number will likely continue to grow. The agency is also set to receive historic levels of funding; HR1, Congress’ recent tax cuts-and-spending bill, contains $75 billion for ICE detention and removal operations.

As spending ramps up, oversight mechanisms have been stifled. Earlier this year, the Trump administration gutted some of the entities tasked with facility oversight, including the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. 

Escobar, the El Paso Democratic House member, said oversight is supposed to be multi-layered, but now “Trump has effectively done away with government watchdogs,” she told the Texas Observer.

Since the other agencies tasked with holding DHS accountable in detention centers have had major staff cuts, the role of members of Congress in conducting oversight of immigration detention is more important than ever, she said.

“There’s absolutely no reason for [DHS Secretary] Kristi Noem to block members of Congress from our legal ability to enter a facility unannounced,” Escobar said. “Unless she believes she has something to hide.”

The post Dems in Congress Are Being Denied Access to ICE Facilities. Now They’re Suing. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

By BRIAN WITTE and BEN FINLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia surrendered to U.S. immigration authorities in Baltimore Monday and faces possible efforts by the Trump administration to deport him to Uganda, an African country with documented human rights abuses and a language he doesn’t speak.

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The Maryland construction worker became the face of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador. He was returned to the U.S. in June, but only to face human smuggling charges that his lawyers call preposterous and vindictive.

The Trump administration has said it is trying to deport Abrego Garcia months before his trial is scheduled in Tennessee, alleging that the 30-year-old married father is a danger to the community and an MS-13 gang member. He denies the gang allegation, pleaded not guilty to smuggling charges and has asked a judge to dismiss the case on ground of vindictive prosecution.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is expected to plead guilty Monday to federal charges related to his role in the violent drug trade that for years flooded the U.S. with cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances.

The longtime leader of the Sinaloa cartel is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Brooklyn for a change of plea hearing.

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The appearance comes after federal prosecutors said two weeks ago that they wouldn’t seek the death penalty against Zambada, who was arrested in Texas last year.

Prosecutors, in a court filing ahead of Monday’s hearing, said they expect the 77-year-old to plead guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of running a continuing criminal enterprise.

Zambada pleaded not guilty last year to a range of drug trafficking and related charges, including gun and money laundering offenses.

Lawyers for Zambada didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.

Prosecutors say the Sinaloa cartel evolved from a regional player into the largest drug trafficking organization in the world under the leadership of Zambada and co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

They say Zambada presided over a violent, highly militarized cartel with a private security force armed with powerful weapons and a cadre of “sicarios,” or hitmen, that carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture.

Guzmán was sentenced to life behind bars following his conviction in the same federal court in Brooklyn in 2019. His two sons, who ran a cartel faction, also face federal charges.

By TOM MURPHY, Associated Press Health Writer

Pricey prescriptions and nagging medical costs are swamping some insurers and employers now. Patients may start paying for it next year.

Health insurance will grow more expensive in many corners of the market in 2026, and coverage may shrink. That could leave patients paying more for doctor visits and dealing with prescription coverage changes.

Price increases could be especially stark in individual coverage marketplaces, where insurers also are predicting the federal government will end some support that helps people buy coverage.

“We’re in a period of uncertainty in every health insurance market right now, which is something we haven’t seen in a very long time,” said Larry Levitt, an executive vice president at the nonprofit KFF, which studies health care.

What’s hitting insurers

In conference calls to discuss recent earnings reports, insurers ticked off a list of rising costs: More people are receiving care. Visits to expensive emergency rooms are rising, as are claims for mental health treatments.

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Insurers also say more healthy customers are dropping coverage in the individual market. That leaves a higher concentration of sicker patients who generate claims.

Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces swelled the past few years. But a crackdown on fraud and a tightening of eligibility verifications that were loosened during the COVID-19 pandemic makes it harder for some to stay covered, Jefferies analyst David Windley noted.

People who use little care “are disappearing,” he said.

Prescription drugs pose another challenge, especially popular and expensive diabetes and obesity treatments sometimes called GLP-1 drugs. Those include Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and Zepbound.

“Pharmacy just gives me a headache, no pun intended,” said Vinnie Daboul, Boston-based managing director of the employee benefits consultant RT Consulting.

There are more super expensive drugs

New gene therapies that can come with a one-time cost of more than $2 million also are having an impact, insurance brokers say. Those drugs, which target rare diseases, and some newer cancer treatments are part of the reason Sun Life Financial covered 47 claims last year that cost over $3 million.

The financial services company covers high-cost claims for employers that pay their own medical bills. Sun Life probably had no claims that expensive a decade ago and maybe “a handful at best” five years ago, said Jen Collier, president of health and risk solutions.

Some of these drugs are rarely used, but they cause overall costs to rise. That raises insurance premiums.

“It’s adding to medical (cost growth) in a way that we haven’t seen in the past,” Collier said.

Marketplace pain is in the forecast

Price hikes will be most apparent on the Affordable Care Act’s individual coverage marketplaces. Insurers there are raising premiums around 20% in 2026, according to KFF, which has been analyzing state regulatory filings.

But the actual hike consumers see may be much bigger. Enhanced tax credits that help people buy coverage could expire at the end of the year, unless Congress renews them.

If those go away, customer coverage costs could soar 75% or more, according to KFF.

Business owner Shirley Modlin worries about marketplace price hikes. She can’t afford to provide coverage for the roughly 20 employees at 3D Design and Manufacturing in Powhatan, Virginia, so she reimburses them $350 a month for coverage they buy.

Modlin knows her reimbursement only covers a slice of what her workers pay. She worries another price hike might push some to look for work at a bigger company that offers benefits.

“My employee may not want to go to work for a large corporation, but when they consider how they have to pay their bills, sometimes they have to make sacrifices,” she said.

Employers may shift costs

Costs also have been growing in the bigger market for employer-sponsored coverage, the benefits consultant Mercer says. Employees may not feel that as much because companies generally pay most of the premium.

But they may notice coverage changes.

About half the large employers Mercer surveyed earlier this year said they are likely or very likely to shift more costs to their employees. That may mean higher deductibles or that people have to pay more before they reach the out-of-pocket maximum on their coverage.

Drug coverage changes are possible

For prescriptions, patients may see caps on those expensive obesity treatments or limits on who can take them.

Some plans also may start using separate deductibles for their pharmaceutical and medical benefits or having patients pay more for their prescriptions, Daboul said.

Coverage changes could vary around the country, noted Emily Bremer, president of a St. Louis-based independent insurance agency, The Bremer Group.

Employers aren’t eager to cut benefits, she said, so people may not see dramatic prescription coverage changes next year. But that may not last.

“If something doesn’t give with pharmacy costs, it’s going to be coming sooner than we’d like to think,” Bremer said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.