Ansari denied access to Arizona’s largest immigration detention center

Despite having followed new guidelines set forth by the Trump administration, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) said she was denied access to the Eloy Detention Center, the largest immigration detention center in Arizona, where she had scheduled to meet over the weekend with people being held there.

According to Ansari, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notified her of the denied access less than 24 hours before her planned visit, during which she intended to address the concerns of constituents whose loved ones are being held at the central Arizona facility.

“Last weekend, I tried to return to Eloy to visit with more of my constituents who have been detained, including a green card holder with leukemia,” Ansari detailed in a video posted on X.

That constituent isArbella Rodriguez Marquez, also known as Yari, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in February and is currently being held at Eloy. According to her loved ones, Marquez, who has been living legally in the U.S. for over two years and suffers from chronic lymphoma leukemia. Marquez was taken to Eloy and, after being denied parole, stripped of her residency by an immigration judge.

Now awaiting a hearing for asylum in the coming weeks, Marquez’s chronic condition and lack of proper medical care in Eloy have made a dire situation even more urgent for members of the Phoenix queer community.

The freshman U.S. representative has been vocal about how Secretary Kristi Noem is running the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and has used her position to call for President Donald Trump to put an end to his mass-deportation machine.

In May, Ansari made a surprise visit to the same detention center and was granted access. What she found was “sickening.”

“So many of the detainees shared that they do not have reliable access to basics like food and water or essential medical care when they are in crisis. Detainees described overcrowded, moldy cells, forced and dehumanizing marches outside in the Arizona heat, constant berating from guards, conditions worse than prison,” Ansari said in a statement regarding her visit.

According to the Detention Watch Center, the Eloy Detention Center is known as one of the deadliest in the nation. From October 2022 to September 2024, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Project, an Arizona-based non-profit that advocates for immigrant rights, filed 53 complaints to the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman.

During her denied visit, she intended to meet with constituents once again, including those who have been wrongfully detained, she said. In a statement released Tuesday, she called out the department’s refusal to allow Congress to conduct oversight of DHS-operated detention centers. 

“My office gave them a seven-day notice of my visit and privacy release forms of constituents I hoped to meet with. They let us know the visit was approved, but less than 24 hours before I was set to make the trip, they changed their minds with no explanation,” she said in a statement.

Ansari, who represents Phoenix, Glendale and Guadalupe, is not the first U.S. Congress member to be denied access to immigration detention centers.

According to the representative, their denied access is an added consequence of the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed early July, which funnels billions into the DHS to further weaponize ICE in carrying out mass raids and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in carrying out mass raids and in militarizing the southern border.

In her video statement posted on X, Ansari called on individuals on the ground to be aware of their rights and not interfere with federal agent actions, as they could face the consequences of the law for doing so.

“To our immigrant communities, I will always stand with you and fight for you. As your voice in Congress, I’m doing everything I can to push back against Trump’s authoritarian overreach and make sure that our communities are protected,” she said.