Four members of Colorado’s congressional delegation on Monday visited a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Aurora, saying they conducted an “oversight” of the holding center.

“Today, we visited the federal detention facility in Aurora in order to conduct critical oversight,” said U.S. Reps. Jason Crow, Joe Neguse, Diana DeGette and Brittany Pettersen said in a joint statement. 

“Ensuring transparency and accountability is a key part of our jobs as members of Congress. But in Colorado and across the country, we have seen the Trump Administration continue to deny members of Congress access to these facilities, which is a violation of federal law. We will not be deterred from doing our jobs, and that’s exactly why we made this visit today,” they added. 

Last month, Crow said he was denied entry to the Aurora facility, which he described as undermining congressional authority to oversee federal immigration operations.

In the last two years, metro Denver has become a focal point in the illegal immigration debate. 

President Donald Trump won a trip back to the White House, in part, on his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration. He vowed during a stop in Colorado last year to begin his mass deportation effort in the state.

Calling it “Operation Aurora,” Trump said the campaign would expedite the removal of “savage gangs” whose members are living in the country illegally. He specifically mentioned Tren de Aragua (TdA), a transnational gang that originated from the prisons of Venezuela and gained a foothold in Aurora, which Crow represents in Congress.

More than 40,000 immigrants have arrived in the metropolis since December of 2022. In Denver, the city’s taxpayers have assumed the bulk of the nearly $90 million cost of housing, feeding and transporting the immigrants.