WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge refused Monday to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing a new policy that requires a week’s notice before members of Congress can visit immigration detention facilities.
US District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, DC, concluded that the Department of Homeland Security did not violate a previous court order when it reimposed a seven-day notice requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
Cobb stressed that she was not deciding whether the new policy would pass 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 January 8 policy is a new agency action that is not subject to its prior order in favor of the plaintiffs.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs 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 the administration’s surveillance visit policy. She ruled on December 17 that it is probably illegal for ICE to require a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions in ICE facilities.
A day after Good’s death, US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memo reinstating another seven-day notice requirement. Attorneys for the plaintiffs from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward said DHS did not reveal the latest policy until US Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig were initially turned away from an ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building.
On Monday, Cobb ruled that the new policy is similar but different from the one announced in June 2025.
“The Court emphasizes that it denies the Plaintiffs’ motion only because it is not the proper way to challenge the Defendants’ memorandum of January 8, 2026 and the policy stated therein, rather than based on any kind of finding that the policy is legal,” she wrote.
The spokeswoman for Democracy Forward Melissa Schwartz said that they are 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 being 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 prohibits DHS from using general appropriated funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for surveillance purposes. The lawyers for the plaintiffs from the Democracy Forward Foundation said that the administration has not shown that none of those funds are being used to implement the latest notice policy.
“Appropriations are not a game. They are 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 Cobb suspended last month.
“This is really a challenge for a new policy,” Richer said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs 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 on January 30.
“This is a critical moment for surveillance, and members of Congress should be able to conduct surveillance at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the attorneys wrote.
Government lawyers said it is merely speculative for lawmakers to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities would change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments last month.
“Changing conditions at ICE facilities mean it is likely impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct the conditions at a facility on the day they initially sought entry,” wrote Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.