Emergency Ruling Reaffirms the Right and Duty of Members of Congress to Conduct Unannounced Inspections Amid Alarming Reports of Abuse
Washington, D.C. — A federal court today granted emergency relief to 13 members of Congress, ordering the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to restore plaintiffs’ unannounced congressional oversight of ICE detention facilities. The ruling enforces federal law and reaffirms Congress’s constitutional authority to investigate detention conditions and ensure accountability.
After the court preliminarily stayed a DHS policy requiring members of Congress to provide prior notice of oversight visits to ICE facilities in December, and following the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by a federal agent in Minnesota, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem secretly reinstated the requirement through a previously undisclosed memorandum. The memo came to light only after multiple members of Congress were denied entry to an ICE facility in Minnesota despite presenting a valid court order. Today’s decision follows another emergency motion filed by Democracy Forward and American Oversight on behalf of the members, after those unlawful denials of entry pursuant to the new DHS memo. Those denials of entry directly interfere with Congress’s right and duty to investigate detention conditions, ensure compliance with the law, and respond to rising reports of abuse and violence inside detention centers.
The court’s ruling restores the plaintiff members’ ability to enter detention facilities in real time, speak with detainees, and investigate conditions that include overcrowding, shackling, denial of medical care, and lack of access to counsel.
“The Court’s decision today to grant a temporary restraining order against ICE’s unlawful effort to obstruct congressional oversight is a victory for the American people. We will keep fighting to ensure the rule of law prevails,” said Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse.
“The president continues to try to solve what he considers to be an ‘optics problem’ by trying to get people to deny what they are seeing with their own eyes. The administration’s agenda to detain people without proper process and to raid communities is morally bankrupt and unlawful, and the American people know that. Today, yet again, a federal court has denied the Trump-Vance administration’s attempt to keep their cruelty out of public view. This ruling is consistent with the law – the president cannot block our clients, who are members of Congress, from conducting oversight of ICE facilities,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “Today’s decision restores Congress’s ability to expose dangerous detention conditions, protect people – including US citizens – who are in government custody, and enforce the law when the administration refuses to do so.”
“Today’s ruling reaffirms what the law has made clear all along: the Trump administration cannot evade accountability by walling off its inhumane and deadly detention practices from congressional oversight,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “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. By restoring Congress’s statutory right to conduct unannounced inspections, the court has made clear that no administration is above the law, and that the human consequences of detention cannot be hidden from public view.”
Plaintiffs include Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse; Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Adriano Espaillat; Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Rep. Bennie G. Thompson; Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin; House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia; House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Ranking Member Rep. J. Luis Correa; and Reps. Jason Crow, Veronica Escobar, Dan Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Kelly Morrison, Raul Ruiz, and Norma Torres.
The case is Joe Neguse et al. v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, et al. Democracy Forward’s legal team includes Christine Coogle, Lisa Newman, Jodie Morse, Paul Wolfson, and Brian Netter. American Oversight’s legal team includes Daniel Martinez, Jessica Jensen, Katherine Anthony, Ronald Fein.
Read the order here.
A Spanish version of this press release is available here.
