DHS said that while Congress members have the right to make unannounced visits to detention facilities for oversight, ICE field offices “fall outside” that purview.

The policy says that ICE field offices are not subject to a federal law that allows members of Congress to make unannounced oversight visits to immigration facilities that “detain or otherwise house aliens.

The Department of Homeland Security has placed new limits on members of Congress seeking to visit and inspect immigration detention facilities as lawmakers from New York and the Chicago delegations become the latest to encounter resistance from federal officials on an attempted tour.