Members of Congress may make unannounced inspection visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, a federal judge ruled Feb. 2.
The order by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily prevents the Department of Homeland Security from requiring a week’s notice ahead of congressional visits as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem demanded in a Jan. 8 memorandum.
Noem’s latest directive was an attempt to bypass a similar court order Cobb handed down in December, this time by claiming the policy was being implemented with money from President Donald Trump’s massive 2025 spending bill. A previous appropriations measure mandated the impromptu inspections.
Joe Neguse
“The court’s decision today to grant a temporary restraining order against ICE’s unlawful effort to obstruct congressional oversight is a victory for the American people,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, one of 13 Democratic U.S. House members who filed Joe Neguse v. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
“The court’s ruling restores the plaintiff members’ ability to enter detention facilities in real time, speak with detainees and investigate conditions that include overcrowding, shackling, denial of medical care and lack of access to counsel,” Neguse said.
His fellow plaintiffs are U.S. Reps. Adriano Espaillat, Bennie G. Thompson, Jamie Raskin, Robert Garcia, J. Luis Correa, Jason Crow, Veronica Escobar, Dan Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Raul Ruiz, Norma Torres and Kelly Morrison. They are represented by Democracy Forward and American Oversight.
Cobb’s order illuminates Trump’s continued effort to deny the unjust immigration policies Americans can plainly see, Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said.
“The administration’s agenda to detain people without proper process and to raid communities is morally bankrupt and unlawful, and the American people know that. Today, yet again, a federal court has denied the Trump-Vance administration’s attempt to keep their cruelty out of public view.”
The ruling sends a message that the federal government cannot evade responsibility for its inhumane and deadly immigration actions, added American Oversight Executive Director Chioma Chukwu.
“At a time when the public has been confronted with violent images of ICE officers attacking people on the street, and reports of abuse, neglect and deaths in ICE custody, transparency is more important than ever,” she said. “By restoring Congress’ statutory right to conduct unannounced inspections, the court has made clear that no administration is above the law, and that the human consequences of detention cannot be hidden from public view.”
The need for Cobb’s latest emergency stay became evident when several members of Congress were denied access to an ICE detention facility in Minnesota despite having the judge’s December order in hand, according to Democracy Forward.
They later learned Noem had secretly re-implemented the seven-day requirement by citing the newer funding source. But Cobb said DHS failed to demonstrate it could implement and enforce the policy using only the recently designated dollars.
The court “notes that it finds compelling plaintiffs’ argument — one not presently disputed by defendants — that at least some of these resources that either have been or will be used to promulgate and enforce the notice policy have already been funded and paid for with … restricted annual appropriations funds,” Cobb explained.