US judge blocks rule requiring notice for oversight visits to immigration detention centers

ISTANBUL

A US federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would have required members of Congress to give advance notice before inspecting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, ruling that the measure likely violated federal law.

District Court Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, DC., said an appropriations statute bars the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using funds to force lawmakers to “provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility” for oversight visits, according to CBS News' report.

“Contrary to Defendants' suggestion, then, (appropriations law) does entitle Members of Congress to access ICE facilities without being subject to a notice requirement,” Cobb wrote in her decision, the outlet reported.

The policy, announced by DHS in June, had required lawmakers to request visits at least seven days in advance, with waivers granted only by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

ICE had historically permitted unannounced congressional visits before the rule was issued.

‘Inhumane, unconstitutional conditions’

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Democracy Forward Foundation and American Oversight on behalf of a dozen Democratic lawmakers who said DHS unlawfully blocked their attempts to inspect ICE facilities.

New York Rep. Dan Goldman, one of the plaintiffs, said the decision affirmed lawmakers’ “statutory right to conduct oversight,” adding: “For months, masked, unidentified ICE agents have detained law-abiding immigrants in inhumane and unconstitutional conditions.”

The order also suspended a separate administration claim that ICE field offices are not detention centers and therefore exempt from congressional oversight, an argument Democrats have challenged as detainees have been held in such facilities for days in cities, including New York.

The decision comes as ICE detention reaches record levels.

As of Nov. 30, the agency was holding about 66,000 people nationwide, the highest total on record, according to ICE figures cited by CBS News, with roughly 47% detained solely for civil immigration violations.