Congresswoman Lauren Underwood got a closer look at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in west suburban Broadview.

The facility had been called an inhumane facility by immigrant rights groups.

After months of trying to get in, Underwood got a chance to tour the facility, but when she arrived, a bit of a surprise — not a detainee or detention officer to be found.

She was met with a message.

"The ICE leadership that we met with said that they were, quote, 'they were updating their security systems and installing new security cameras,' and so all detainees and staff were not present," she said.

For months, elected officials, clergy, and protesters have been demanding access and transparency into the processing facility, never built to process the number of people being pumped through the ICE system this year.

A facility so rundown that a federal judge demanded sweeping changes to what the American Civil Liberties Union and others called "inhumane treatment." From cleaning showers to offering toothbrushes to ensuring those kept here understand their rights.

Underwood described the facility as "terrible" and "not a place where you want to spend time."

There's no one providing medical care. They had one package of Huggies. They had some sanitary pads for menstruating women, and they had foot power," she said.

What would she imagine it was like when over 100 people are being processed?

"Unsanitary, uncomfortable, loud, noisy, smelly, because there's three showers, period," Underwood said.

She was granted access because she's the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees Homeland Security.

On a visitation day where there were no detainees and no detention officers. What does that signal for Underwood?

"What this signals, to me, is that they understand that what has happened here over the last 60 days is completely unacceptable," she said.

Underwood hopes to visit the other ICE processing centers around Illinois and return to the Broadview facility when detainees are present.

CBS News reached out to ICE to find out where they put people being processed when the facility is shut down for the security upgrade, and if Underwood granted access on Tuesday because no one was there, but they have yet to respond.