Judge nixes latest policy requiring 7 days’ notice for Congress members to visit ICE facilities
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed Monday. temporarily suspend It’s the latest version of a Trump administration policy that requires members of Congress to give a week’s notice before visiting immigration detention centers.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington ruled that a group of Democratic lawmakers may succeed in showing that the seven-day notice requirement is illegal and exceeds the government’s legal authority.
The judge said the Republican administration failed to provide “concrete examples of the security problems posed by unannounced congressional visits.”
Thirteen House members filed a lawsuit to challenge the policy that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued on January 8. Cobb blocked an earlier version of the policy in December. It ruled that it was probably illegal for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to require a week’s notice from members of Congress who wanted to visit ICE facilities and observe conditions.
“Plaintiffs are undoubtedly frustrated by Defendants’ repeated attempts to impose a reporting requirement,” Cobb wrote. “However, in taking further action, defendants must abide by the terms of the Court’s decision and act in accordance with the legal principles set forth in this opinion.”
But Noem secretly reimposed another reporting requirement a day after an ICE officer was shot and killed. US citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis. It was nearly identical to the version Cobb blocked in December.
Three days after the deadly attack, three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were prevented from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security did not announce the new version of the policy until after U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig were initially turned away from the facility, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
One law prohibits the government from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for surveillance purposes. Cobb found it was “highly likely” that President Donald Trump’s administration used restricted funds to enact and enforce the new policy.
Cobb was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.
