A federal judge on Feb. 2 issued a second order blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) policy preventing unannounced oversight visits to immigration detention centers by lawmakers.

In the nation’s capital, Judge Jia Cobb ruled DHS may not reinstitute the policy she previously blocked weeks ago by claiming it is now using a different source of funding to carry it out.

In the new order, Cobb barred the policy for the time being as litigation over it plays out in court.

The department created the oversight visitation policy in June 2025 after it said Democratic officeholders had caused disruptions at ICE facilities they visited to investigate complaints of poor conditions.

Cobb had previously issued an order on Dec. 17, 2025, that halted the policy.

Several 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 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities when they visited them without providing advance notice.

Neguse and other lawmakers filed an emergency application with the court last week, saying DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reinstated the restrictive visitation policy after Cobb blocked it.

The lawmakers said in a statement that “2025 marked the deadliest year for those in ICE custody in more than two decades, with record detentions and mounting reports of abuse and inhumane conditions.

“We are returning to court to restore congressional oversight and hold this administration accountable to the American people.”

In the emergency application filed on Jan. 26, the lawmakers said DHS has stepped up immigration enforcement activities, “the number of individuals detained by ICE has exploded to an all-time high, and there is every indication that the number of ICE arrests and detentions will only continue to grow at a dangerous rate.”

As a result, the importance of congressional oversight at immigration detention centers has “escalated along with the number of detainees and resulting deterioration of conditions,” the application said.

On Jan. 8, DHS “secretly reimposed” its requirement that members of Congress must provide a minimum of seven days’ notice to conduct oversight visits of facilities.

This led to three lawmakers representing Minnesota being denied access to the Whipple Federal Building outside Minneapolis after the Jan. 7 ICE-involved fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and reports of “deplorable conditions at that facility,” the application said.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief urging Cobb not to halt the policy.

It said the lawmakers’ application is without merit because the Jan. 8 policy is being enforced using funds provided under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a tax and spending bill enacted last year.

The earlier version of the policy was being enforced using funds provided under a law known as Section 527, DOJ said.

Congress has renewed Section 527 every year since 2020. It forbids 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.”

In her new order, Cobb said she found “compelling” the lawmakers’ argument that at least some of the resources used to enforce the Jan. 8 policy come from funds already appropriated under Section 527, including for contracts that predate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Cobb noted that she previously found that the policy “imposes irreparable harm upon the [lawmakers] in denying them the ability to carry out timely oversight of covered facilities.”

Neguse hailed the new ruling in a Facebook post, calling it “a victory for accountability, congressional oversight, and for the American people.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the Justice Department. No reply was received by publication time.

This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Feb. 2, 2026, in The Epoch Times.