A judge declined to block a new DHS policy limiting members of Congress’ access to ICE facilities

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday refused to temporarily block the Trump administration from implementing a new policy requiring members of Congress to give a week’s notice before visiting immigration detention facilities.

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

Cobb emphasized that she is not ruling whether the new policy will pass legal muster. Instead, she said, plaintiffs’ lawyers representing several Democratic members of Congress used the wrong “procedural vehicle” to challenge it. The judge also concluded that the January 8 policy was a new agency action not subject to his prior order in favor of the plaintiff.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs asked Cobb to intervene after Minnesota’s three Democratic members of Congress were barred from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis earlier this month — three days after an ICE officer shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Goode in Minneapolis.

Last month, Cobb temporarily blocked the administration’s inspection visit policy. She ruled on December 17 that it is illegal for ICE to require a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit ICE facilities and observe conditions.

A day after Goode’s death, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of the U.S. Department of the Interior secretly signed a new memorandum that reinstated another seven-day notification requirement. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, said DHS did not disclose the latest policy until U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig were taken away from the ICE facility at the Minneapolis federal building.

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

“The court emphasizes that it denies plaintiff’s motion because it is not a proper means of challenging defendant’s January 8, 2026 memorandum and the policy stated therein, rather than finding that any such policy is valid,” he wrote.

Democracy Forward spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said they are reviewing the judge’s latest order.

“We will continue to use all legal tools available to us to stop the administration’s efforts to hide from congressional scrutiny,” she said in a statement.

Twelve other Democratic members of Congress filed suit in Washington to challenge ICE’s revised visitor policies after being denied entry to detention facilities. Their lawsuit alleges that Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has obstructed congressional oversight of the centers amid a nationwide increase in immigration enforcement actions.

The law prohibits DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for inspection purposes. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, the Democracy Forward Foundation, said the administration has shown that none of those funds were used to implement the latest whistleblowing policy.

“Appropriations are not a game. They are the law,” plaintiffs’ attorney Christine Kugel said during Wednesday’s hearing.

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

“That’s really the challenge for the new policy,” Richer said.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the case is urgent because members of Congress have announced that DHS’s annual appropriations for DHS and ICE for the upcoming fiscal year will expire on Jan. 30.

“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress should be able to conduct inspections at ICE detention facilities, unannounced, to obtain immediate and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the attorneys wrote.

Attorneys for the state said the only thing lawmakers are worried about is speculation that the situation at ICE facilities will change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments last month.

“Changed conditions within ICE facilities mean that it is impossible for members of Congress to reconstruct conditions in the facility on the day they originally sought entry,” wrote Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.