Joe Neguse

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colorado) attempted to conduct an oversight visit at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office at 100 Midland Ave. in Glenwood Springs on Wednesday while traveling to a town hall in Gypsum.

The building, known as the Midland Center, houses suites used by ICE.

Neguse said he and members of his team spent roughly 30 to 40 minutes attempting to contact personnel inside the building but received no response.

“We’ve been out here somewhere between a half hour and 40 minutes,” Neguse said. “We rang the doorbell multiple times, tried countless times upstairs, did the same downstairs.”

The visit comes as the city of Glenwood Springs is reviewing building compliance issues related to the suites used by ICE at 100 Midland Ave. City officials recently said a final certificate of occupancy for two suites in the building was never issued following construction more than two decades ago and that inspections and corrections are underway.

Neguse said the visit was part of his congressional oversight responsibilities related to immigration enforcement and detention practices.

“First and foremost, my job is to fight for the state of Colorado,” Neguse said. “The committee and the work that we’re doing to ensure that there’s proper oversight of ICE, I ought to come here and attempt to conduct an oversight visit at this particular facility here, a few miles outside of the district.”

Although the Glenwood Springs office lies just outside Neguse’s congressional district, he said oversight of federal agencies operating in Colorado is still part of his role.

Neguse referenced a lawsuit he filed against ICE related to access to detention facilities, saying courts have ruled that members of Congress are allowed to conduct unannounced oversight visits.

“I filed a lawsuit against ICE last year when ICE was attempting to obstruct congressional oversight of detention facilities, including the Aurora facility down on the Front Range, and we won that lawsuit,” Neguse said. “We won it three times now. Three times a court has issued a ruling making clear that ICE has to comply with federal law, which allows members of Congress to conduct unannounced oversight visits so that we can get to the bottom of what’s happening and ensure that standards are being met and conduct the necessary oversight on behalf of our constituency.”

Neguse said those rulings apply to ICE field offices and other facilities where immigrants may be detained or housed.

“That’s why I’m here, and we intend to follow up promptly given the lack of a response here at the doors,” he said.