Judge refuses to block new DHS policy limiting Congress members’ access to ICE facilities
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge rejected on monday Temporarily blocking the Trump administration from enforcing a new policy requiring a week’s notice before members of Congress visit immigrant detention facilities.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Department of Homeland Security did not violate an earlier court order when it reinstated the seven-day notification requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
Cobb emphasized that he has not decided whether the new policy is legally valid. Instead, he said, plaintiffs’ lawyers representing several Democratic members of Congress used the wrong “procedural tool” to challenge it. The judge also concluded that the Jan. 8 policy was a new agency action not subject to a prior ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys asked Cobb to intervene after three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were prevented from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis earlier this month — three days after an ICE officer was shot and killed US citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis.
Last month, Cobb temporarily blocked the administration’s surveillance visit policy. On December 17, it ruled that it was probably illegal for ICE to require a week’s notice from members of Congress who wish to visit ICE facilities and observe conditions.
A day after Good’s death, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memorandum of understanding that reinstated a seven-day notice requirement. Plaintiffs’ lawyers from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward said DHS did not announce the latest policy until after U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig were initially turned away from an ICE facility at the Minneapolis federal building.
On Monday, Cobb ruled that the new policy is similar to but different from the policy announced in June 2025.
“The Court emphasizes that it denied Plaintiffs’ motion solely because there was no appropriate means to challenge Defendants’ January 8, 2026 memorandum and the policy set forth therein, and was not based on any finding that the policy was lawful,” he wrote.
Democracy Forward spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said they are reviewing the judge’s latest decision.
“We will continue to use every legal tool available to stop the Administration’s efforts to hide from congressional oversight,” he said in a statement.
Twelve other Democratic members of Congress have filed a lawsuit in Washington to challenge ICE’s changing visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities. Their lawsuit accused Republican President Donald Trump’s administration of obstructing congressional oversight of the centers during a nationwide surge in enforcement operations against immigrants.
One law prohibits DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for surveillance purposes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the Foundation for Advancing Democracy said the administration has not shown that any of those funds were used to implement the latest reporting policy.
“Appropriations are not a game. They are the law,” plaintiffs’ attorney Christine Coogle said at the hearing Wednesday.
Justice Department attorney Amber Richer said the Jan. 8 policy Noem signed was different from the policies Cobb suspended last month.
“This is really challenging a new policy,” Richer said.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys said the issue is urgent because members of Congress are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the next fiscal year, with DHS’s annual appropriations set to expire Jan. 30.
“This is a critical moment for surveillance, and members of Congress must be able to conduct surveillance of ICE detention facilities without notice to obtain urgent and necessary information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the attorneys wrote.
Government lawyers said lawmakers’ concerns about conditions at ICE facilities changing within a week were merely speculative. But the judge rejected those claims last month.
“Changing conditions at ICE facilities mean that it is likely impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct conditions at a facility that he or she initially sought to enter,” wrote Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.
