WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed Monday to temporarily halt the latest version of a Trump administration policy that requires members of Congress to give a week’s notice before visiting immigration detention facilities.
U.S. District Judge Jacob Jacobs in Washington ruled that a group of Democratic lawmakers was likely to succeed in proving that the seven-day notice requirement was unlawful and exceeded the government’s legal authority.
The judge said the Republican administration did not cite any “specific examples of security concerns posed by unannounced congressional visits.”
Thirteen House members filed a lawsuit challenging the policy issued on January 8 by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Cobb blocked a previous version of the policy in December. She ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement may be illegal by requiring a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions at ICE facilities.
“There is no doubt that plaintiffs are frustrated by defendants’ repeated attempts to impose notice requirements,” Cobb wrote. “But in taking further action, defendants must comply with the terms of the court’s order and act in accordance with the legal principles announced in this opinion.”
However, Noem secretly reinstated another notification requirement one day after an ICE officer shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis. It’s nearly identical to the version Cobb blocked last December.
Three days after the fatal shooting, three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were barred from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security did not reveal the new version of the policy until U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig were initially denied access to the facility, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
A law prohibits the government from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering Homeland Security facilities for oversight purposes. Cobb found that President Donald Trump’s administration is “highly likely” to use limited funds to enact and enforce new policies.
Cobb was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.
