A dozen Democratic lawmakers are suing the Trump administration for denying them access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
In a 67-page federal court filing Wednesday, the group of 12 congresspeople alleged that a new rule requiring them to provide a week’s advance notice to the Department of Homeland Security before visiting a facility used to detain immigrants was illegal. The new rule coincided with a steep increase in the number of immigration arrests, and a number of sweeping reports detailing horrific conditions at ICE detention facilities across the country.
Lawyers alleged that the department’s new rule violated section 527 of the 2024 DHS appropriations bill, as incorporated by the fiscal year 2025 Continuing Resolution, which stated that the government could not require lawmakers to “provide prior notice of the intent to enter a [DHS] facility.”
This clause isn’t out of the ordinary—Congress has adopted a similar statute every year since 2019, always proving that no funds appropriated to DHS “may be used to prevent” a Congress member from conducting an oversight visit at such a facility. Since Donald Trump entered the White House, however, each of the 12 plaintiffs said they had been blocked from entering a DHS facility in person.
The plaintiffs included Representatives Joe Neguse, Adriano Espaillat, Bennie G. Thompson, Jamie Raskin, Robert Garcia, J. Luis Correa, Jason Crow, Veronica Escobar, Daniel S. Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Raul Ruiz, and Norma Torres.
In addition to allegedly violating section 527, the lawsuit accused the DHS of violating the Administrative Procedure Act by acting contrary to the law and in excess of its statutory authority. The lawmakers argued that the oversight visit policy was “arbitrary and capricious because it lacks a lawful basis.”
The lawsuit also alleged that by preventing the lawmakers from entering the facilities, ICE had wrongly delayed them from performing their duties.
The lawmakers are seeking for DHS to declare the rule unlawful and vacate it, and to ensure they will be able to freely conduct oversight visits.
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security imposed restrictions requiring lawmakers to provide ICE with at least 72 hours’ notice before visiting a facility where immigrants are being detained. Previously, sitting members of Congress were allowed to conduct oversight visits at any DHS facility used to “detain or otherwise house aliens” without providing prior notice, and congressional staffers only needed to give 24 hours’ notice.
The new guidance also granted ICE wide discretion to “deny a request or otherwise cancel, reschedule or terminate a tour or visit” for a number of reasons, including “operational concerns” or if ICE officials or facility managers “deem it appropriate.”
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