Judge puts DHS rule requiring advance notice for congressional visits on hold
The decision suspends the seven-day notice requirement while the court reviews its legality.
Department of Homeland Security building.
A federal judge blocked a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy that established a seven-day advance notice requirement for lawmakers to visit immigrant detention centers. The decision suspends the measure while the case is still under judicial review and maintains, for now, congressional access to these facilities without prior notice.
The policy, implemented by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seeks to regulate visits to federal facilities. However, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded that there is a substantial likelihood that the rule violates lawmakers' legal rights, which warranted its temporary suspension.
The legal basis cited by the court
The ruling relies on a provision included by Congress in an appropriations law passed in 2020. That language prohibits DHS from using funds "to prevent" members of Congress from entering, for the purpose of oversight, any department facility used to detain or house aliens.
Cobb determined that the DHS policy conflicted with that statutory language. He also concluded that the affected lawmakers suffered "informational harm" by not being able to directly observe conditions and operations inside detention centers, against a backdrop of increased deportations under the current Administration.
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Response from the plaintiff lawmakers.
History of tensions over site visits
The ruling comes amid previous episodes of friction between ICE and some lawmakers. Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, faces charges after an altercation with law enforcement outside a detention center in that state, in which prosecutors accuse her of assaulting agents with her forearms.
In Arizona, Rep. Adelita Grijalva claimed that ICE used pepper spray against her during a protest outside a facility in Tucson.
For his part, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat argued that the decision reaffirms the validity of the law and warned that DHS and ICE must allow congressional oversight Congressional visits to comply with what the courts have ordered.
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