Judge Won't Block ICE Access Policy    01/20 06:11

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge refused Monday to temporarily block the 
Trump administration from enforcing a new policy requiring a week's notice 
before members of Congress can visit immigration detention facilities.

   U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., concluded that the 
Department of Homeland Security didn't violate an earlier court order when it 
reimposed a seven-day notice requirement for congressional oversight visits to 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.

   Cobb stressed that she wasn't ruling on whether the new policy passes legal 
muster. Rather, she said, plaintiffs' attorneys representing several Democratic 
members of Congress used the wrong "procedural vehicle" to challenge it. The 
judge also concluded that the Jan. 8 policy is a new agency action that isn't 
subject to her prior order in the plaintiffs' favor.

   Plaintiffs' lawyers asked Cobb to intervene after three Democratic members 
of Congress from Minnesota were blocked from visiting an ICE facility near 
Minneapolis earlier this month -- three days after an ICE officer shot and 
killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis.

   Last month, Cobb temporarily blocked an administration oversight visit 
policy. She ruled Dec. 17 that it is likely illegal for ICE to demand a week's 
notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions in ICE 
facilities.

   A day after Good's death, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary 
Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memorandum reinstating another seven-day 
notice requirement. Plaintiffs' lawyers from the Democracy Forward legal 
advocacy group said DHS didn't disclose the latest policy until after U.S. 
Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig initially were turned away 
from an ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building.

   On Monday, Cobb ruled that the new policy is similar but different than the 
one announced in June 2025.

   "The Court emphasizes that it denies Plaintiffs' motion only because it is 
not the proper avenue to challenge Defendants' January 8, 2026 memorandum and 
the policy stated therein, rather than based on any kind of finding that the 
policy is lawful," she wrote.

   Democracy Forward spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said they were reviewing the 
judge's latest order.

   "We will continue to use every legal tool available to stop the 
administration's efforts to hide from congressional oversight," she said in a 
statement.

   Twelve other Democratic members of Congress sued in Washington to challenge 
ICE's amended 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 its 
nationwide surge in immigration enforcement operations.

   A law bars DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of 
Congress from entering DHS facilities for oversight purposes. Plaintiffs' 
attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation said the administration hasn't 
shown that none of those funds are being used to implement the latest notice 
policy.

   "Appropriations are not a game. They are a law," plaintiffs' attorney 
Christine Coogle said during a hearing Wednesday.

   Justice Department attorney Amber Richer said the Jan. 8 policy signed by 
Noem is distinct from the policies that Cobb suspended last month.

   "This is really a challenge to a new policy," Richer said.

   Plaintiffs' attorneys said the matter is urgent because members of Congress 
are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the next fiscal year with DHS's 
annual appropriations due to expire Jan. 30.

   "This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be 
able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to 
obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations," the 
lawyers wrote.

   Government attorneys have said it's merely speculative for the legislators 
to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities change over the course of a 
week. But the judge rejected those arguments last month.

   "The changing conditions within ICE facilities means that it is likely 
impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct the conditions at a facility 
on the day that they initially sought to enter," wrote Cobb, who was nominated 
to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.