A trio of Democrat lawmakers was reportedly given permission Saturday morning to enter the Whipple Federal Building in Minnesota, where they had been seeking to tour the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent earlier this week, but were quickly escorted back out.
Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig showed up about 9:30 a.m. local time to tour the ICE operations, saying they were invited by a former acting agency director.
They were briefly stopped at a gate before they were allowed to enter, but about 30 minutes later, they were back outside, reports KMSP in Minneapolis.
"We were initially invited in to do our congressional oversight and to exercise our Article I duties," said Omar.
"When we made it in, it was with the authorization of someone who's been here for a really long time, who understood that we had a congressional duty to enter the building and see the facility," she added.
"Shortly after we were let in, two officials came in and said they received a message that we were no longer allowed to be in the building and that they were rescinding our invitation and denying any further access to the building," said Omar.
She said she and the other congresswomen saw around 20 people being detained, and that they were told that detainees were being removed, reports the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis.
"We were informed that there are two planes taking off today, taking detainees out of this center into other detention centers within the United States," she said, adding that the congresswomen were told the flights were not for deportation.
Meanwhile, protesters were ordered to disperse Friday night after they appeared outside a hotel where ICE agents were staying. More than a dozen people were arrested.
Minnesota prosecutors announced Friday that they are launching their own investigation into Wednesday's shooting, even though the FBI has taken sole ownership of the case.
A new video published Friday, apparently filmed by Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Good, appeared to show the fatal confrontation from his perspective.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.