A federal judge has temporarily blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s latest attempt to prevent Democratic lawmakers from conducting unannounced inspections of federal immigration detention facilities, dealing a second legal blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict congressional oversight as deaths and reports of abuse inside ICE custody continue to rise.
The emergency order, issued February 2 by U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb, grants relief to 13 Democratic members of Congress who were blocked by Department of Homeland Security officials from inspecting immigration jails without prior notice. The ruling halts enforcement of a policy quietly reissued by Noem on January 8 that required lawmakers to provide seven days’ notice before entering detention facilities, a rule the court had already blocked in December.
The policy’s reappearance came amid growing national outrage over immigration enforcement practices, including the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis one day before Noem’s memo was issued. Protests erupted across the country following Good’s death, and tensions escalated further when lawmakers attempting to check on detained constituents were turned away.
“Unlawful secrecy has fueled the deadliest era in Department of Homeland Security detention history,” said Andrew Fels, a staff attorney at the migrant rights group Al Otro Lado. “Today’s ruling reaffirms the importance of congressional oversight, particularly when lives, safety, and basic human dignity are at risk.”
The legal challenge stems from repeated incidents in which Democratic lawmakers were denied access to detention sites despite federal law requiring DHS to permit congressional oversight. In Minnesota, Rep. Ilhan Omar and other Democratic officials were blocked from entering the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, which the Trump administration has converted into a makeshift detention and enforcement hub during its immigration crackdown. Officials cited Noem’s new policy, effectively barring surprise inspections.
“What happened today is a blatant attempt to obstruct members of Congress from doing their oversight duties,” Omar said at the time.
Judge Cobb found that the revised policy was nearly identical to the one struck down weeks earlier and rejected the administration’s claim that changes in funding sources allowed DHS to reinstate the restriction. In her ruling, Cobb wrote that the lawmakers were likely to succeed on the merits of their lawsuit, adding that scrutiny of ICE practices has only intensified.
“If anything, the strength of that finding has become greater over the intervening weeks, given that ICE’s enforcement and detention practices have become the focus of intense national and congressional interest,” Cobb wrote.
The Trump administration argued that its immigration detention operations are now funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping tax and spending law passed last summer that set aside approximately $45 billion for ICE detention facilities and another $31 billion for enforcement resources. DHS lawyers claimed this funding shift freed the agency from restrictions attached to annual appropriations that prohibit limits on congressional oversight.
Judge Cobb rejected that argument, writing that the government failed to show it had stopped using appropriated funds subject to those conditions. Lawyers for the lawmakers argued that DHS budgets are so interwoven that it is impossible to separate funding streams, noting that everything from salaries to office supplies is covered under congressional appropriations.
“The court previously found that the policy imposes irreparable harm upon the plaintiffs in denying them the ability to carry out timely oversight of covered facilities,” Cobb wrote.
The ruling comes as immigration detention reaches record levels. ICE detained roughly 40,000 people daily before Trump returned to office, but by mid January the population had surged to 73,000 people. The administration has made detention mandatory for nearly everyone facing deportation proceedings, even though being undocumented is a civil violation and immigration judges historically release individuals on bond absent criminal charges or public safety concerns.
The impact has been deadly. At least 38 people have died in DHS detention facilities since Trump returned to the White House. Families are pursuing wrongful death claims after at least six deaths in custody in 2026 alone. As Truthout has reported, 2025 was the deadliest year inside immigration jails outside of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Conditions inside the facilities have drawn repeated alarms. Lawmakers and advocates cite inedible food, medical neglect, solitary confinement, and physical abuse. On Jan. 27, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff said a year long investigation by his office uncovered 1,000 credible reports of human rights abuses in ICE detention.
Oversight efforts have increasingly been met with force. In May 2025, federal officers arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver during a confrontation outside an ICE prison in New Jersey while Democratic officials attempted to inspect conditions. McIver was charged with assaulting federal officers and says the case is politically motivated. A federal judge has demanded internal communications from the administration while allowing the prosecution to proceed.
The push to restrict inspections is unfolding alongside aggressive street level enforcement. A review by The Trace found 20 instances in which federal immigration agents shot people since Trump’s deportation campaign began last year. At least five people were killed, including Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and another nine were injured. In at least 36 cases, agents “held bystanders, protesters, or other people at gunpoint under questionable circumstances.”
Advocacy groups say the court’s decision is a critical check on an administration determined to operate behind closed doors.
“At a time when the public has been confronted with violent images of ICE officers attacking people on the street, and reports of abuse, neglect, and deaths in ICE custody, transparency is more important than ever,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight.
Judge Cobb’s order is temporary, and she is expected to revisit the issue within weeks. But for now, the ruling restores lawmakers’ ability to conduct surprise inspections at a moment when scrutiny of immigration detention has reached a breaking point.
“Today, yet again, a federal court has denied the Trump Vance administration’s attempt to keep their cruelty out of public view,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward. “This ruling is consistent with the law—the president cannot block our clients, who are members of Congress, from conducting oversight of ICE facilities.”
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