A federal judge on Dec. 17 issued an order temporarily halting the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent members of Congress from making unannounced oversight-related visits to detention facilities run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Judge Jia Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that while the court is considering the case, ICE may not enforce the Trump administration’s visitation restrictions that were introduced in June.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the oversight visit policies after it said Democratic officeholders had caused disruptions at ICE facilities they visited to investigate complaints of poor conditions.
In May, three Democratic members of Congress; Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey; and a group of protesters “stormed the gate” of an ICE detention center in Newark, DHS said at the time.
One of the lawmakers, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), said that she and the others were exercising their “lawful oversight responsibilities” and accused federal agents of escalating the situation.
Several Democratic lawmakers criticized the access restrictions, alleging that they violate federal law and undermine congressional oversight.
“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny member visits to ICE offices across the country,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a June 18 statement.
Twelve federal lawmakers, including Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), had sued the agency over its oversight visit policies after they said they were denied access to various ICE facilities, including field offices, when they visited them without providing advance notice.
The plaintiffs alleged that ICE violates the Administrative Procedure Act and federal spending legislation, known as Section 527.
The act is a federal statute enacted in 1946 that governs administrative law procedures for federal executive departments and independent agencies.
Sen. Pat McCarran (D-Nev.) said at the time that the law was “a bill of rights for the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose affairs are controlled or regulated in one way or another by agencies of the federal government.”
Section 527 refers to legislation that Congress has renewed every year since 2020. It forbids ICE’s parent organization, DHS, from preventing members of Congress “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight,” any DHS facility that is “used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”
The legislation allows DHS to require 24 hours’ advance notice for a visit by congressional staff members, but it provides that members of Congress themselves may not be required to provide advance notice of a visit for the purpose of carrying out oversight, according to Cobb’s written opinion.
In June, ICE posted a policy on its website stating that agency field offices were not covered by Section 527 because they were used to make custody determinations about noncitizens, not to hold them in custody.
The policy was later taken down from the website without explanation.
Later that month, ICE posted a policy requiring members of Congress wishing to visit ICE facilities to provide the agency with seven days of advance notice, the opinion said.
In her opinion, Cobb wrote that the plaintiffs have demonstrated that they will likely succeed on the merits of their claim that the oversight visit policies violate the law and exceed DHS’s statutory authority.
Cobb indicated she was preliminarily staying the policies under Section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Neguse applauded the new court ruling.
“The rule of law will prevail,” he wrote on X.
The Epoch Times reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment, which represents federal agencies in court, but received no response.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Dec. 17, 2025, in The Epoch Times. It was updated Dec. 18, 2025.