WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration secretly reimposed a policy that limits congressional access to immigrant detention facilities one day after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, lawyers for several Democratic members of Congress said Monday as they asked a federal judge to intervene.
Three Democratic Minnesota lawmakers were unable to visit an ICE detention facility near Minneapolis on Saturday, three days after an ICE worker killed the U.S. citizen Renee Good in the city.
Last month, Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily barred ICE from enforcing policies that restrict lawmakers’ access to immigrant detention facilities. In a court filing on Monday, the plaintiffs’ lawyers asked Cobb to hold an emergency hearing and decide whether the seven-day advance-notice policy violates her order.
Cobb ruled on December 17 that it is likely illegal for ICE to require a week’s notice for any lawmaker visit to detention centers. The judge stated that the requirement probably exceeds the legal authority of the Department of Homeland Security.
The lawyers seeking an emergency hearing argue the matter is urgent because lawmakers are negotiating funding for the Homeland Security and Immigration departments for the upcoming fiscal year.
“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without prior notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for the ongoing funding negotiations,” the lawyers wrote.
Cobb has ruled on the request. Government lawyers have not yet filed a written response.
On Saturday, Representatives Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig attempted to tour the ICE facility in the federal building in Minneapolis. They were initially allowed in, but about 10 minutes later they were told that they had to leave.
Officials who turned them away cited the newly imposed seven-day advance-notice policy for congressional oversight visits. Last Thursday, one day after Good’s death, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a memo reinstating the prior notice requirement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Cobb, who was nominated to the post by Democratic President Joe Biden, ruled last month in favor of 12 other lawmakers who sued to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after being denied entry to detention facilities. Their lawsuit accused the Trump administration of obstructing congressional oversight of the centers during its aggressive immigration detention crackdown.
The government lawyers had argued that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to bring their claims. They added that it is purely speculative to think conditions at ICE facilities would change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments.
“The changing conditions inside ICE facilities mean it would likely be impossible for a member of Congress to reproduce the conditions at a facility on the day they first sought to enter,” Cobb wrote.
A law prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from using funds appropriated to prevent members of Congress from entering the agency’s facilities for oversight. The Democracy Forward Foundation’s lawyers said the administration has not shown that any of those funds are being used to implement the latest advance-notice policy.
