Washington– Federal judge Monday refused To temporarily prevent the Trump administration from implementing a new policy requiring a week’s notice before members of Congress can visit Immigration detention facilities.
U.S. District Judge Gia Cobb in Washington, D.C., concluded that the Department of Homeland Security did not violate a previous court order when it reinstated a seven-day notification requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
Cobb said she was not judging whether the new policy passed legal muster. She said plaintiffs’ attorneys representing several Democratic members of Congress used the wrong “procedural tool” to challenge it. The judge also concluded that the January 8 policy is a new agency action that is not subject to its prior order in favor of the plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys asked Cobb to intervene after three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were banned from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis earlier this month — three days after an ICE officer was shot and killed. American citizen Rene Judd In Minneapolis.
Last month, Cobb temporarily banned the department’s supervisory visits policy. It ruled on December 17 that it was likely unlawful for ICE to require a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit ICE facilities and monitor conditions there.
A day after Judd’s death, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memo reimposing another seven-day notice requirement. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the Department of Homeland Security did not reveal the latest policy until after U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig were initially turned away from the ICE facility at the federal building in Minneapolis.
Cobb ruled Monday that the new policy is similar but different from the one announced in June 2025.
“The court asserts that it is denying Plaintiffs’ motion only because it is not an appropriate way to challenge Defendants’ January 8, 2026 memorandum and the policy set forth therein, rather than based on any type of conclusion that the policy is lawful,” she wrote.
Twelve other Democratic members of Congress have filed a lawsuit in Washington challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s revised visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities. The lawsuit accused the administration of Republican President Donald Trump of obstructing Congress’ oversight of the centers during a surge in immigration enforcement operations nationwide.
The law prohibits DHS from using appropriated public funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for surveillance purposes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys from Democracy Forward said the administration had not proven that none of those funds were used to implement the latest notice policy.
“Appropriations are not a game. They are a law,” plaintiffs’ attorney Christine Kugel said during a hearing Wednesday.
Justice Department attorney Amber Richer said the Jan. 8 policy Noem signed differed from the policies Cobb suspended last month.
“This is actually a challenge to the new policy,” Richter said.
The matter is urgent because members of Congress are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the upcoming fiscal year, and DHS’s annual appropriations are set to expire on Jan. 30, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.
“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight of ICE detention facilities, without warning, to obtain information that is urgent and essential to ongoing funding negotiations,” the lawyers wrote.
Government lawyers said it’s just speculation that lawmakers would be concerned about changing conditions at ICE facilities over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments last month.
“The changing conditions inside ICE facilities mean it is likely impossible for a member of Congress to reconstruct conditions at the facility on the day they initially sought entry,” wrote Cobb, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden.