I’m working on new legislation as we speak to investigate and stop this astounding corruption.
I am working on new legislation to investigate and stop corruption involving DHS and ICE contractors.
Occurrences
I am working on new legislation to investigate and stop corruption involving DHS and ICE contractors.
Representative Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03) introduced the Short-Term Holding Facilities Standards Restoration Act
Evidence
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Representative Yassamin Ansari announced a comprehensive package of legislation to hold ICE accountable. The release says her set of bills includes the Drain ICE Act and the Stop Inhumane Conditions in ICE Detention Act, and explains that the latter would require DHS and ICE to regularly report on detainee health conditions, standards of care, and outbreaks or deaths in custody, with contract reviews and DHS IG audits.
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H.R. 7347 was introduced by Rep. Ansari on February 4, 2026. Congress.gov shows the bill’s status as Introduced, with referral to the House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. The text defines covered facilities to include ones providing detention services under a competitively bid DHS contract and establishes reporting and oversight requirements.
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The actions page shows only the introduction and referral actions on 02/04/2026; the bill remained at the Introduced stage with no floor vote, committee markup, or further advancement recorded in the available action history.
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Ansari and colleagues said they wrote two letters demanding answers about a $313.4 million DHS contract awarded to GardaWorld Federal Services to renovate the Surprise, Arizona immigration facility. The release says they were concerned the contract was awarded to a firm with no detention-oversight experience and that the administration failed to notify local leaders.
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The release recounts that Ansari and other lawmakers sent letters to DHS, ICE, and a contractor about a planned ICE facility, raising questions about contractor qualifications, human health and safety, and humane treatment. It also describes a separate request for an investigation into a detainee death at Florence, including concerns about training, standards, and DHS guidance to staff.
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The bill text for the Drain ICE Act states that rapid expansion of detention spending has created powerful financial incentives for private contractors and detention facility operators whose profit-driven models and oversight deficiencies raise concerns about accountability, waste, abuse, and rampant corruption. It proposes repealing and rescinding ICE funding from the referenced reconciliation act.
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Representative Yassamin Ansari introduced a package of bills (Drain ICE Act H.R. 7346; Stop Inhumane Conditions in ICE Detention Act H.R. 7347; Studying Disastrous Impacts of Mass Deportation Act H.R. 7345) that include requirements for contract reviews in cases of abuse and annual audits by the DHS Inspector General.
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House Judiciary Democrats' March 30, 2026 press release lists Representative Yassamin Ansari as one of the members (52-member letter) pressing contractors and real estate firms for information about profits, lobbying, and contracting practices tied to ICE's warehouse detention expansion.
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Ansari, Stanton, and Grijalva introduced the Fund Schools, Not ICE Act. The release says the bill would redirect ICE funding to Title I schools and require DHS to sell 11 recently purchased warehouse detention facilities, including the Surprise, Arizona warehouse; it also says the lawmakers had repeatedly raised transparency, code-compliance, medical-capacity, and safety concerns about the Surprise warehouse.
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The release says Ansari conducted a congressional oversight visit to the Dilley ICE Detention Center, called for DHS to close Dilley and release detained families, said private contractors profit from detaining children and families at taxpayer expense, and described this as her twelfth congressional oversight visit to an ICE detention facility.
Assessments
The promise was framed as a process commitment to work on new legislation and investigations, not necessarily to enact a completed anti-corruption law. During the same federal House term, Ansari introduced ICE/DHS accountability legislation including H.R. 7347 and the Drain ICE Act, with contractor review, DHS Inspector General audit, reporting, and anti-corruption provisions. She also joined oversight letters and facility visits focused on DHS/ICE contractor qualifications, procurement, profit, safety, and transparency. The bills do not appear to have been enacted, so this would not satisfy a promise to pass a law, but it does fulfill the stated commitment to work on new legislation and investigate contractor-related corruption.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari introduced a package of bills (including the Drain ICE Act and Stop Inhumane Conditions in ICE Detention Act, H.R. 7345-7347) explicitly targeting contractor oversight, reporting requirements, contract reviews, and DHS IG audits. She also led and joined formal oversight actions (letters demanding answers about a $313.4M GardaWorld contract, requests for investigation into a detainee death, and a multi-member letter probing contractors/real estate firms). These actions constitute active work on new legislation and investigations into DHS/ICE contractors consistent with the claim. While the bills remained at introduction and referral with no enactment recorded, the promise stated she was working on new legislation and investigations—work which the record confirms occurred during the same term.
The claim is framed as working on legislation to investigate and stop corruption involving DHS and ICE contractors, not as a promise that the legislation would become law. Evidence shows Ansari did concretely do that in the same term: she introduced a legislative package including H.R. 7347 with DHS/ICE contract review and Inspector General audit provisions, and related bills explicitly targeting contractor abuse, waste, and corruption concerns. Additional evidence shows she also pursued oversight letters and investigations into DHS/ICE contracting practices. However, the cited bill remained only introduced and referred, with no enactment or further advancement recorded, so the broader outcome of actually stopping corruption was not delivered. Because she clearly carried out substantial legislative and oversight work matching the promise, but did not secure final policy change, the best judgment is partial rather than delivered.