A senior caseworker for Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) allegedly impersonated an attorney at least 11 times to gain access to an ICE detention facility and smuggle cell phones to detainees, according to a letter Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons sent to the congresswoman Thursday.
The staffer, Benito Torres, is accused of misrepresenting himself as legal counsel for detainees held at the Camp East Montana facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso. ICE records show Torres first posed as an attorney in September 2025, with the most recent incident occurring on January 30.
“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,” Lyons wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News.
A facility sign-in log obtained by ICE shows Torres listing himself as a “lawyer” visiting a “client.” During the January 30 visit, a facility administrator confronted Torres after staff became aware someone was passing phones to multiple detainees. Torres admitted at that point he was not an attorney and said he was visiting in a personal capacity.
ICE has permanently banned Torres from accessing any ICE facility. Lyons has also sent Escobar a formal request for written answers to several questions: whether Torres was on her payroll during the visits, whether he holds a valid law license, whether she knew about his actions, and whether she will hold him accountable.
This is not the first time a Democratic congressional staffer has used the fake-attorney scheme to breach ICE facilities. In November, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) fired a staffer named Edward York after he claimed to be the attorney for Jose Ismeal Ayuzo Sandoval, a Mexican national with a DUI conviction who had been deported four times. Duckworth dismissed York after the conduct came to light.
