Oregon’s U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas went to Tacoma, Washington, on Tuesday expecting to meet with three of her constituents who are detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

Instead, the second-term Democrat — whose 6th Congressional District includes cities in the northern Willamette Valley grappling with increased ICE presence and arrests — and a lawyer from the Portland-based nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, who represents the three detained, were left to wait.

Although she did get a tour of the facility, their meetings with detainees were cancelled, Salinas said, because there was a lack of rooms to hold them as hundreds of people detained in the facility compete for time and space to meet with their lawyers.

“While you have theoretical access, you don’t really

See Full Page