ICE needs transparency to defrost protests

Do you really know what is going on inside Newark’s Delany Hall detention center?

I don’t, and neither do you.

And neither do the people protesting conditions inside the lockup, protests that turned violent, forcing the New Jersey governor to send state police to separate pro- and con- protestors, and ICE enforcement officers. 

Ignorance inflames, and ICE’s cold shoulder bears most of the responsibility for the ignorance.

The central problem is ICE’s frequent refusal to admit members of Congress to its facilities, although it is required to do that.

Section 527 of the annual DHS Appropriations Act states that none of the funds assigned to the Department of Homeland Security “may be used to prevent . . . a member of Congress” from entering a DHS facility, even unannounced.

To prevent that, the Trump administration invented a seven-day waiting period, which was quashed by a March 2, 2026 court order in Neguse v. Noem.

It is axiomatic that if you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. So why does ICE want to hide? Rightly or wrongly, it suggests criminality.

Many Democrats do not want to see illegals held in detention centers at all, while most Republicans reply detention is necessary to keep them in custody until they get a required hearing prior to deportation. 

Most Americans believe that jails must maintain at least minimum standards of sanitation, nutrition, housing, and medical care. That should not be controversial.

Since we can’t depend on DHS, or any government agency, under any administration, to police itself, outside oversight is required.

Protestors claim that food is lousy and inadequate, that there is overcrowding, that medical services are inadequate.

In the ensuing furor, DHS released sample meals supposedly served in its facilities.

Decent  meals can be served en masse. Ever been to a roadside motel that offers a free breakfast of scrambled eggs, french toast, home fries, oatmeal, juices, pancakes, coffee, tea, fruit? I have, many times, and while it may not be the highest quality, it is nutritious and filling. But can we believe the sample meals announced by DHS actually are served in all facilities? We can’t.

Outside inspection is needed.

On Chris Cuomo’s NewsNation show the other night, ICE enforcement director Tom Homan said that ICE’s published standards “are the highest in the industry.”

But are they being followed, is the question.

And the answer is to provide unqualified, instant access to members of Congress, who should be free to inspect the entire facility and interview anyone they care to.

Of course many prisoners will complain, with or without basis, but if maggots are routinely served, that will be discovered.

So will unsanitary conditions, and lack of medical coverage. 

If discovered, it will be the responsibility of the jail operator to improve, or be fined or removed.

Even before  that happens, protestors must remember the Constitution provides them with the right to peaceably assemble. There is no right to  threaten, harass, intimidate or physically touch any law enforcement officer. That is criminal.

Wild reports of putrid jail conditions can be dispelled by transparency.

Another example — the Epstein files.

The Trump Administration (and others before it) operated as if sitting on the files would make the controversy disappear.

It hasn’t, and mainly because Trump campaigned on a promise of transparency.

While some files have been released, millions of pages have not, and the noisiest protest has come from Trump’s own MAGA base. 

Every time Trump makes a move — starting a war with Iran, demolishing the East Wing for a monster ballroom, renaming the Kennedy Center, inventing a $250 bill — he is accused of “distracting” from Epstein. If that is what he is trying to do, it surely is not working.

When it comes to the files, half a loaf will not do.

The latest example, following the partial release of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena files, were cries that the “good stuff,” the belief that the government has alien remains in its custody, was not disclosed. The protest will not go away until the government comes clean.

In one case where the government did release almost everything — the JFK assassination files — the conspiracies stopped almost immediately, proving the adage that sunlight is the best disinfectant, that transparency makes for more trust in government, not less.

Unless the files prove that the government is guilty of wrongful conduct.

Even if that is true, we, the people, have a right to know.