After repeatedly being denied entry, U.S. Rep Julia Brownley recently conducted an oversight visit of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Camarillo.
The Westlake Village Democrat wanted to tour the processing center at 321 Cortez Circle after reports of medical service requests at the location caused her to question the safety of the detainees there, according to previous reporting. Hundreds stop at the facility to attend immigration appointments or to be processed on their way to detention centers.
Brownley said her Feb. 6 visit, however, did not resolve her concerns, largely because there were no detainees present for her to speak with about their treatment.
“I found it incredulous that such a hotbed for immigration enforcement activity — with a jurisdiction extending from Ventura County all the way up to San Luis Obispo County — appeared devoid of detainees during my visit,” she wrote in a Feb. 23 statement.
Brownley’s spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions by press time. ICE officials did not respond to questions about Brownley’s statement or whether detainees were transferred out of the facility ahead of her tour.
Brownley previously said that she asked ICE for details about the food and medical care provided to detainees, an accounting of enforcement activities at the office and information about detainees’ access to legal counsel and was not given any answers.
The congresswoman unsuccessfully attempted to enter the facility Jan. 30 before holding a news conference to condemn ICE’s treatment of U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants. She said she was told she had to provide seven-days notice.
Brownley said the policy is unconstitutional and that she and her Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate are challenging it in court.
She said she believes that because of the policy, staff was able to make changes in advance of her arrival.
The management team that supervised her tour did not allow her to see the second floor of the building, but on the first floor, she said she saw six holding cells. They were all empty and clean, she said.
She said she was shown a refrigerator and pantry fully stocked with food and water as well as a closet with sanitation items.
“While the management team was receptive and responsive to our questions, my underlying concerns about the safety and legality of their operations were not assuaged due to their limited transparency regarding the day-to-day functions of this processing center,” Brownley wrote.
She said what she was permitted to see during her visit did not align with what the volunteers who regularly monitor the facility have told her about the activity level there.
Since early last year, volunteers from 805UndocuFund, a nonprofit that provides resources to undocumented immigrants in the region, have spent nearly every day outside the facility at Cortez Circle. They monitor the comings and goings of ICE in hopes of letting people at risk know when the agents are patrolling streets or launching raids.
Joseph Dobzynski of 805UndocuFund was not available to discuss the activity he had witnessed at the facility by press time.
Brownley said she will continue her effort to impeach U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and oppose the department’s funding unless restrictions on ICE are implemented.
In a Feb. 24 news release, Brownley announced that she would boycott the State of the Union that night in an act of opposition against President Donald Trump.
Makena Huey is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at makena.huey@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: U.S. Rep. Brownley says local ICE facility ‘eerily quiet’ during visit
Reporting by Makena Huey, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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