US judge says Trump cannot ban lawmakers’ surprise visits to ICE facilities

By Daniel Wiessner

Dec 17 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday said President Donald Trump’s administration cannot bar members of Congress from making unannounced visits to immigrant detention facilities. 

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., said U.S. Department of Homeland Security policies deeming Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices “off-limits for congressional oversight” and requiring seven days’ notice for visits violated federal law.

Cobb blocked the policies DHS adopted in June pending the outcome of a lawsuit by twelve Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The representatives who sued come from California, Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi, New York and Texas. In a joint statement, they said the decision was a critical step toward restoring congressional oversight.

“Real-time, on-the-ground visits to immigration detention facilities help prevent abuses and ensure transparency,” the lawmakers said. 

Trump, a Republican, has made a crackdown on legal and illegal immigration a centerpiece of his second term. That has included a mass deportation campaign and the detention of thousands of people awaiting legal proceedings. 

The Democrats who filed the lawsuit say their unannounced visits, without interference from ICE, remain necessary because detention facilities have often failed to afford basic standards of care. 

They said denying such visits amid continued reports of maltreatment, overcrowding and poor sanitation, violates a federal law adopted in 2020 during Trump’s first White House term.

Cobb, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, agreed on Wednesday, noting that the law explicitly bars ICE from requiring members of Congress “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility … for the purpose of conducting oversight.”

A number of Democratic elected officials have been arrested for protesting outside of ICE facilities or attempting to enter them. 

Representative LaMonica McIver, a Democrat from New Jersey, was charged with assault in May after a scuffle during an unannounced visit to a detention center in Newark. McIver has denied wrongdoing and said her prosecution was politically motivated.        

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Alistair Bell)