A senior caseworker on Rep. Veronica Escobar's staff allegedly lied about being an attorney at least 11 times to gain access to detainees at an ICE facility in El Paso, smuggling a cell phone inside in violation of security protocols.
Fox News reported that acting ICE Director Todd Lyons informed the Texas Democrat in a letter dated Thursday that the staffer, Benito Torres, has been permanently banned from all ICE facilities.
Escobar called the allegations "unfounded" and described Torres as "a dedicated public servant" and "Army veteran." She offered no explanation for how a non-lawyer signed in as legal counsel on 11 separate occasions.
According to Lyons' letter, ICE records show Torres first misrepresented himself as a legal professional in September 2025 at the Camp East Montana facility at Fort Bliss. The scheme allegedly continued for months.
The most recent incident occurred on Jan. 30, when Torres was confronted by a facility administrator and admitted he was not an attorney and was visiting as a private person.
Lyons laid out the full scope of the allegations:
"The available evidence demonstrates your staffer, a senior caseworker named Benito Torres, misrepresented himself as counsel for detainees in ICE custody, violated clear detention standards and security protocols prohibiting the use of cellphones inside ICE facilities, improperly met with multiple detainees, and falsely claimed to ICE personnel such use had been approved by the agency."
That last detail is worth pausing on. Torres didn't just claim to be a lawyer. He allegedly told ICE personnel that the agency itself had approved his cell phone use inside the facility. Layer upon layer of deception, each one designed to burrow deeper into a secure detention environment.
Lyons has now requested that Escobar provide written answers to several pointed questions:
Those questions carry weight. If Torres was acting on his own, Escobar has an employee problem. If she knew, she has a much bigger one.
Escobar's response to Fox News did not engage with the substance of the allegations. Instead, she pivoted to a familiar playbook: attack the accuser.
"It is worth noting that ICE has refused to respond to multiple letters I've sent about Camp East Montana regarding deaths, including a homicide; outbreaks of diseases including COVID-19, measles, and tuberculosis; waste, fraud, and abuse; a lack of legal representation or medical care; and so much more."
She then escalated further:
"This administration has a history of engaging in intimidation tactics against Members of Congress as well as continuously attempting to obstruct our ability to provide oversight. I stand proudly by the members of my team who have demonstrated nothing but dedication and integrity to serving our nation and our community."
Notice what's missing. Not one word addressing the 11 alleged incidents. Not one explanation for how her staffer's name appeared on facility sign-in logs as an attorney. Not one indication that she plans to investigate the matter internally. The word "unfounded" does a lot of heavy lifting when you refuse to engage with the foundation.
Escobar has long been a vocal critic of the Camp East Montana facility, calling it "disastrous and inhumane" and demanding it be shut down. In a March post on X, she cited "chronic substandard conditions."
Whatever the merits of those complaints, they do not explain why a member of her staff allegedly impersonated a lawyer nearly a dozen times. Concerns about facility conditions and systematic fraud to breach security protocols are not the same conversation.
This is not the first time a Democratic congressional staffer has been caught impersonating an attorney to access illegal immigrants in federal custody. In November, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois fired a staffer, Edward York, who claimed he was legally representing Jose Ismeal Ayuzo Sandoval, a Mexican citizen who had a DUI conviction and had been previously deported four times to Mexico.
Credit to Duckworth for acting swiftly. She fired York. That's what accountability looks like.
Escobar, by contrast, is standing "proudly" by her team and calling the whole thing a political intimidation tactic. Two Democratic offices, two staffers caught doing essentially the same thing, two very different responses.
The cell phone detail deserves more attention than it's getting. Detention facilities prohibit personal electronic devices for serious reasons.
Phones can be used to coordinate with smuggling networks, to contact co-conspirators, to intimidate witnesses, or to undermine ongoing investigations. Sneaking a phone past security and into the hands of detainees is not a minor procedural infraction. It is a breach of the security architecture that keeps both detainees and facility personnel safe.
When a congressional staffer does it under the cover of a fabricated legal identity, it raises questions that go well beyond one rogue employee.
Who were the detainees Torres met with? What was communicated on those phones? Were any of those communications related to pending immigration proceedings or removal orders?
These are the questions Lyons is asking. Escobar is answering a different set entirely.
Members of Congress have legitimate oversight authority over federal agencies, including ICE. No serious person disputes that. But oversight means requesting records, holding hearings, visiting facilities through proper channels, and demanding transparency from agency leadership. It does not mean sending a staffer to impersonate an officer of the court.
Escobar's framing of this as an "intimidation tactic" conflates two things that should never be confused: congressional oversight, which is a constitutional function, and alleged fraud against a federal law enforcement agency, which is a potential crime. Wrapping one in the language of the other doesn't protect it. It discredits the real thing.
Eleven times. Not a misunderstanding. Not a one-off miscommunication at a sign-in desk. Eleven entries in an ICE facility under false pretenses over a span of months, until a facility administrator finally confronted Torres and he admitted the truth.
Escobar has questions to answer. So far, all she's offered is a press release.
