WASHINGTON | A federal judge refused Monday to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing a new policy requiring a week’s notice before members of Congress can visit immigration detention facilities.
Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow has been among a handful of fellow Democrats pressing for unannounced access to the immigrant jails, in particular, the GEO ICE detention facility in Aurora. Crow maintains the law upholds the unannounced visits and that a new Trump policy requiring advance notice is counter to the law.
“The law is clear: Members of Congress have a legal right to conduct oversight of federal facilities,” Crow said in a statement. “I’ll keep fighting to hold this administration accountable and bring much-needed transparency to taxpayer dollars being spent on these facilities.”
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., concluded that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t violate an earlier court order when it reimposed a seven-day notice requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. Cobb stressed that she wasn’t ruling on whether the new policy passes legal muster. Rather, she said, plaintiffs’ attorneys representing Crow and other Democratic members of Congress used the wrong “procedural vehicle” to challenge it. The judge also concluded that the Jan. 8 policy is a new agency action that isn’t subject to her prior order in the plaintiffs’ favor.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers 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 an administration oversight visit policy. She ruled Dec. 17 that it is likely illegal for ICE to demand a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions in ICE facilities.
A day after Good’s death, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memorandum reinstating another seven-day notice requirement. Plaintiffs’ lawyers from the Democracy Forward legal advocacy group said DHS didn’t disclose the latest policy until after U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig initially were turned away from an ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building.
On Monday, Cobb ruled that the new policy is similar but different than the one announced in June 2025.
“The Court emphasizes that it denies Plaintiffs’ motion only because it is not the proper avenue to challenge Defendants’ January 8, 2026 memorandum and the policy stated therein, rather than based on any kind of finding that the policy is lawful,” she wrote.
The ruling reverses a December federal court action temporarily blocking the Trump administration from limiting congressional access to immigration detention facilities, and sided with Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow and other lawmakers who sued after being turned away from oversight visits.
Aurora Democrat Rep. Crow at the front of the fray
In December, Crow said that ruling restores Congress’ ability to conduct unannounced inspections, which lawmakers argue are guaranteed under federal law. The decision came in a lawsuit Crow filed in July after the Department of Homeland Security denied him entry to the Aurora facility.
“Today’s decision is a critical victory toward restoring our ability to conduct essential congressional oversight on behalf of the American people,” Crow and other plaintiffs said in a joint statement. “It reinforces the rule of law and reminds the administration that oversight is not optional.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., in July by Crow and several other Democratic members of Congress who said they were similarly denied access to detention centers across the country. Those lawmakers include Reps. Joe Neguse of Colorado, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat of New York, Jimmy Gomez, Norma Torres, Raul Ruiz, Robert Garcia and Lou Correa of California.
The case stems from Crow’s attempt on July 20 to inspect the privately run GEO ICE detention center in Aurora, where officials refused entry, citing a Department of Homeland Security policy requiring seven days’ advance notice. Crow has said consistently that policy violates federal law allowing members of Congress to conduct immediate, unannounced oversight visits of federal facilities.
ICE officials previously defended the notice requirement as necessary for coordination and security, saying it protects staff, detainees and facility operations. Crow and his colleagues argue that such requirements obstruct transparency, particularly as immigration detention centers face overcrowding and allegations of mistreatment.
Crow has made immigration detention oversight a central issue since taking office. According to his office, he has personally conducted nine oversight visits of the Aurora facility since 2019, while his staff has made more than 80 visits. Crow also regularly publishes public reports detailing conditions at the center on his congressional website.
He has introduced bipartisan legislation to explicitly guarantee lawmakers the right to conduct unannounced, in-person inspections of ICE facilities, including reviews related to public health and humane treatment.
The December court’s ruling temporarily blocks the administration from interfering with those oversight efforts as the lawsuit proceeds. Crow said he and his colleagues will continue pressing for access to detention facilities and accountability from the administration.
But last week, Crow and his colleagues said they would return to federal court to challenge what they say is a renewed effort by the Trump administration to “secretly” block unannounced congressional oversight of immigration detention facilities.
The Democratic lawmakers asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene after the Department of Homeland Security quietly issued a memo requiring members of Congress to give seven days’ notice before visiting federal immigration detention centers.
Congressional officials said last week that ICE facility inspection requests brought the Homeland Security memo to light.
Activists promise to continue fight for access
Democracy Forward spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said they were 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 they were 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 bars DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for oversight purposes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation said the administration hasn’t shown that none of those funds are being used to implement the latest notice policy.
“Appropriations are not a game. They are a 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 that Cobb suspended last month.
“This is really a challenge to a new policy,” Richer said.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys said the matter is urgent because members of Congress are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the next fiscal year with DHS’s annual appropriations due to expire Jan. 30.
“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the lawyers wrote.
Government attorneys have said it’s merely speculative for the legislators to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments last month.
“The changing conditions within ICE facilities means that it is likely impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct the conditions at a facility on the day that they initially sought to enter,” wrote Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Judge Cobb just reminded Jason Crow that even members of Congress have to follow the law. DHS put in a new Jan. 8 policy, and Crow’s lawyers used the wrong legal vehicle, so their attempt to keep staging surprise visits to ICE jails failed. A simple 7‑day notice protects staff, detainees, and operations. Real oversight happens through serious legislation and cooperation on border security, not made‑for‑camera drop‑ins at the Aurora GEO facility.
Trump is rapidly becoming the crabby old deluded old man on the block who snatches every baseball that rolls into his yard. Not only here, but all over the world! Everyone is getting pissed off! Why isn’t somebody getting his bed ready at a nursing home with a memory care unit? Then he’s surrounded himself with Rhode scholars, like Kristi Noem, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Pete Hegseth, who constantly do everything to block transparency. If he’s so proud of his actions, why can’t our representatives check on the progress? We were told by Trump during the 2024 campaign that he would deport the “worst of the worst.” Great! Who want’s criminals allowed into our country? But, as it turns out, most of the detainees don’t have any record and haven’t been charged with anything. So he’s rounding up brown restaurant workers, nannies, maids, construction workers. Their crime? It’s the color of their skin. He’s allowing white South Africans to come in unimpeded, but hold on if you are from Honduras, Mexico, and Somalia!
Mikey, I don’t know if your accusations are made as your personal beliefs, or for political effect. But I’ve found that one of the best ways to determine a racist is that they cry and see racism everywhere they look. The reason most of the deportees are brown is simply statistical. You are smart enough to know that (I think).
Mikey – As far as physical and mental ability, President Trump accomplishes more in 1 week than Biden did in 6 months during his Presidency. Biden spent most of his time sitting in a chair on the beach with an ice cream cone likely barking out orders to non-existent people.