A group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), asked a federal judge on Monday to block the Department of Homeland Security from continuing to enforce a policy that restricts federal lawmakers from visiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities without advanced notice.
Last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem issued a new memo that requires lawmakers to submit oversight visit requests to ICE field offices and detention centers at least seven days in advance. The directive follows a June 2025 memo that outlined the same time frame for a valid request to be made.
The new policy differs in one key aspect, however. Noem ordered ICE to oversee congressional visits “exclusively with money appropriated” by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The move is meant to circumvent a court ruling handed down by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb last month in favor of the same group of House Democrats challenging Noem’s revised policy.
“Defendants’ duplicate notice policy is a brazen attempt to nullify the limitations placed on DHS by law in section 527 and to subvert this Court’s section 705 stay order,” the plaintiffs’ court document reads.
Section 527 of the DHS appropriations bill grants members of Congress the right to conduct unannounced oversight visits of ICE facilities using congressionally appropriated funds.
Noem argued that the funds being used exclusively through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, instead of an annual appropriations bill, frees DHS from apparent Section 527 limitations. The plaintiffs disagreed, accusing the department of disobeying Cobb’s prior order.
In a footnote, attorneys for the plaintiffs said that they “regret the necessity” of the latest court filing but noted they “were not made aware of the duplicate notice policy” until Saturday, when Noem’s memo was made public. By then, it had already been implemented against members of Congress.
The policy prevented three Minnesota Democrats from gaining full access to an ICE detention facility outside Minneapolis on Saturday. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Angie Craig (D-MN), and Kelly Morrison (D-MN) were denied entry to the site after they were briefly allowed into the facility.
ICE officials told the lawmakers they were getting kicked out because funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act were being used.
Noem issued the new memo one day after an ICE officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis. The House Democrats who filed Monday’s motion noted the timing of the policy in relation to Renee Nicole Good’s death.
The plaintiffs are requesting an emergency hearing, where the defendants can provide evidence to explain how the “duplicate notice policy” complies with Section 527 and the court’s prior order.
NOEM CHANGES PROTOCOL FOR LAWMAKERS’ OVERSIGHT OF ICE FACILITIES AFTER MINNESOTA SHOOTING
They noted that annual funding for DHS expires on Jan. 30.
“Members of Congress are actively negotiating over the funding of DHS and ICE, including consideration of the scope of and limitations on DHS’s funding for the next fiscal year. And ICE continues to expand its operations, including immigration detention and enforcement,” attorneys for the House Democrats wrote. “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.”