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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Rep. Don Beyer, who represents Alexandria, joined two Northern Virginia colleagues Thursday evening in an unannounced visit to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's temporary holding facility in Chantilly, the latest in a series of congressional inspections of a site that drew allegations of severe overcrowding last year.
Beyer (D-VA-08) was joined by Reps. James Walkinshaw (D-VA-11) and Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA-10). In a video Walkinshaw posted to Facebook that evening, which Beyer shared, and a statement released Friday, the three said they acted after receiving reports of overcrowding and long stays at a facility Walkinshaw described as built "to process small numbers of people before they are sent to detention facilities."
What they found was less alarming than what prompted the visit. "At the time of our visit, we did not witness overcrowding," the statement said. ICE staff told them the agency is complying with a recent court order limiting stays at temporary processing facilities such as Chantilly to 12 hours.
The lawmakers said the visit would not be their last. "We will continue monitoring this facility and holding ICE accountable to ensure everyone in its custody is treated humanely and in accordance with the law," they said.
Background
The Chantilly site is ICE's Washington Field Office at 14797 Murdock St., a processing facility with hold rooms rather than a detention center. It has no beds.
For years, ICE policy capped stays in such rooms at 12 hours. That changed on June 24, 2025, when the agency issued a nationwide waiver allowing holds of up to 72 hours absent exceptional circumstances, citing limited transfer options and an inability to release detainees.
Reports of conditions at Chantilly followed within weeks. PODER VA, an immigrant-rights hotline campaign, said in August 2025 it had received accounts of as many as 100 people held at the office for up to five days. The ACLU of Virginia said that fall that up to 80 people were being held in a single room for more than a week at a time without access to lawyers, medical care or basic hygiene, and sent ICE a demand letter.
Beyer, Subramanyam, Walkinshaw and Sen. Mark Warner toured the facility in September 2025 after what they described as a month of trying to gain access. They reported conditions had improved from earlier accounts but said the overcrowding had been "wholly predictable" given the policy change, adding that "it should not have taken this long for members of Congress to gain access to a federal facility to conduct lawful oversight."
The 12-hour limit the lawmakers referenced appears to stem from a federal judge's ruling in California in June, which barred ICE nationwide from holding people longer than 12 hours in short-term cells and from making arrests at courthouse hearings. That ruling expanded a temporary order that had applied to Northern California. The statement does not name the case.
Similar litigation has targeted hold rooms elsewhere. A federal judge on Long Island ruled in December that ICE was holding people at the Central Islip facility "inhumanely and unlawfully," writing that the evidence "shocks the conscience."
What isn't known
The lawmakers' statement and Walkinshaw's video are the only public accounts of the visit. Neither says how many people were being held, how long they had been there, what the delegation observed beyond the absence of overcrowding, or whether members spoke with anyone in custody.
ICE has not issued a public statement about the visit.
