Federal judge again blocks Noem’s attempt to limit Congress’ access to ICE facilities – Democracy Docket
Federal judge again blocks Noem’s attempt to limit Congress’ access to ICE facilities
By Jacob Knutson, February 2, 2026
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem at Miami International Airport in January, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
A federal judge again blocked Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s efforts to hamstring congressional oversight of federal immigration detention facilities.
Monday’s ruling marks the second time in as many months that U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb temporarily halted Noem’s attempt to require that members of Congress provide notice seven days before they conduct in-person oversight visits to immigration detention facilities.
Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, previously ruled in December that Noem couldn’t enforce the Department of Homeland Security’s advanced notice policy because it violated federal appropriations law.
DHS and its sub-agencies are barred from using funds to deny members of Congress access to “any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens” when they are conducting oversight.
However, Noem responded to the court order with a nearly identical policy, though she ordered agents to carry out the new rule only with funding from President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which she claimed was not subject to traditional appropriations requirements.
Democratic representatives who sued over Noem’s previous rule asked Cobb last month to also strike down DHS’s new notice policy. They argued that it would be impossible for the Trump administration to enforce the new policy solely with OBBB funds.
In her ruling Monday, Cobb said that the representatives, who are represented by Democracy Forward*, will likely succeed in their argument.
“Today’s decision restores Congress’s ability to expose dangerous detention conditions, protect people – including US citizens – who are in government custody, and enforce the law when the administration refuses to do so,” Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement.
Noem’s second attempt at requiring advanced notice only came to light after three Minnesota Democrats — Reps. Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison — were denied entry while attempting to conduct oversight on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility outside of Minneapolis.
The lawmakers attempted to visit the facility after ICE officer Jonathan Ross killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the city.
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