A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that sought to require members of Congress to submit requests a week before visiting and inspecting Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities.
U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the policy likely violated an appropriations law passed by Congress saying that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, cannot use funds to require lawmakers in Congress to “provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility” to conduct oversight.
That DHS policy, announced in June, said members of Congress should file requests to inspect ICE facilities a minimum of seven days before making the visit, and that only Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could waive that requirement. Before that policy, ICE had historically allowed members of Congress to visit ICE facilities, without prior notice.
“Contrary to Defendants’ suggestion, then, (appropriations law) does entitle Members of Congress to access ICE facilities without being subject to a notice requirement,” Cobb wrote in her ruling Wednesday.
The D.C.-based judge’s order stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the groups Democracy Forward Foundation and American Oversight on behalf of a dozen Democratic lawmakers in Congress who attempted to inspect ICE detention centers.
In a statement, New York Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said Wednesday’s order vindicated lawmakers’ “statutory right to conduct oversight.”
“For months, masked, unidentified ICE agents have detained law-abiding immigrants in inhumane and unconstitutional conditions, while DHS has repeatedly and unlawfully blocked me and other Members of Congress from inspecting these facilities,” Goldman said.
CBS News reached out to representatives for DHS seeking comment.
Previously, the Trump administration has argued ICE detention site visits by members of Congress should not interfere with President Trump’s constitutional powers. It has also accused Democratic lawmakers of going to ICE facilities for political purposes.
The Justice Department charged Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey with assaulting law enforcement during a clash at an ICE detention facility in Newark. McIver has called the charges politically motivated.
Wednesday’s order also suspended a Trump administration policy that argued ICE field offices were not detention centers and thus not subject to unfettered congressional oversight. Democratic lawmakers have argued those facilities, even though they’re not long-term detention centers, should be subject to inspections since they have been used to hold detainees for days in some cities, including in New York.
The ruling comes amid a historic expansion of ICE’s detention system under the second Trump administration.
As of Nov. 30, ICE was holding roughly 66,000 individuals facing deportation in detention centers across the U.S., an all-time high, according to agency figures. Roughly 47% of those detainees lacked criminal records and were being held solely due to civil violations of immigration law. Some 26% of the detainees had criminal convictions and the other 26% had pending charges, the statistics show.