Judge orders ICE to let members of Congress make snap inspections

A federal judge ordered ICE to restore immediate access for members of Congress seeking to make inspections of detention facilities, saying the agency seems to be playing games with its funding to try to block the lawmakers.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, said the law passed by Congress that funds Homeland Security includes language guaranteeing members the right to inspect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings without prior notice or restraint.

She said the Trump administration’s attempts to claim it was using other money were unconvincing.

She issued an injunction blocking Secretary Kristi Noem’s Jan. 8 policy requiring at least seven days’ advance notice for members of Congress to visit ICE detention facilities.

It’s the second time Judge Cobb has spanked ICE over attempts to restrict access.

The case turns on what money ICE uses to run its detention facilities and create new policies.

Usually that’s simple — the agency gets money from Congress in the annual spending process. And Congress includes the language guaranteeing members access.

But Congress last summer passed President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill budget law with tens of billions of dollars for ICE, available over the coming years, without the language guaranteeing lawmakers’ access to detention facilities.

DHS said it adjusted its detention policy so that only that budget money is being used, and thus it is not bound by the access provisions of the annual spending laws.

More than a dozen Democrats have challenged that, saying it’s impossible to segregate the money so cleanly and at least some of the annual funding is being used. That, they said, would be enough to preserve lawmakers’ access.

Judge Cobb agreed, and said DHS “provides almost no details or specifics as to how DHS and ICE would accomplish this task in the face of the practical challenges raised by plaintiffs.”

Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, the lead Democratic lawmaker in the lawsuit, hailed the ruling.

“The court’s decision today to grant a temporary restraining order against ICE’s unlawful effort to obstruct congressional oversight is a victory for the American people,” he said in a statement.

Complicating matters even more, the spending bill that funds DHS ran out over the weekend, sparking a partial government shutdown.

DHS has in the past argued that if the bill has lapsed, so has the provision guaranteeing lawmakers’ access.

Judge Cobb preemptively rejected that argument.

She said even the policy to restrict access was drawn up using regular spending money, so the whole thing is tainted.

“The court finds issuance of a temporary restraining order proper even though the DHS appropriations to which Section 527 is attached have currently lapsed,” Judge Cobb ruled.