Democrats Promise Legal Action After Noem Restricts Lawmakers’ Access to ICE Facilities

Democrats in Congress are threatening to sue Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over a new policy she issued meant to restrict lawmakers’ access to ICE detention facilities. Current federal law states that members of Congress can visit detention centers at any time without prior notice. In the wake of Renee Good’s killing in Minnesota, three House Democrats tried to visit ICE detainees at a federal building, though they were ultimately not permitted to do so by the agents on duty after initially being let onto the premises. “I was just denied access to the ICE processing center at the Whipple Building,” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, one of the lawmakers who tried to meet with detainees, wrote on X. “Members of Congress have a legal right and constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight where people are being detained.”The lawmakers’ inability to visit with migrants is a result of a new policy issued by Ms. Noem just one day after Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer. The memo, made public in court filings on Friday, states that members of Congress must now give ICE notice that they will be visiting its facilities at least seven days in advance. “The basis for this policy is that advance notice is necessary to ensure adequate protection for Members of Congress, congressional staff, detainees, and ICE employees alike,” Ms. Noem said in her memo to ICE officials. Current congressionally approved funding for Ms. Noem’s department includes an important provision guaranteeing lawmakers’ ability to access ICE detainees at any time, though she argues that additional funding for her deportation operation is actually a separate pool of money. As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law last year, tens of billions of dollars were appropriated for ICE operations. Ms. Noem argues that those funds — not her usual annual budget — can be used to enforce her seven-day waiting period for members of Congress to access facilities. “ICE must ensure that this policy is implemented and enforced exclusively with money appropriated by the OBBBA,” Ms. Noem says. Ms. Noem has tried to implement the same seven-day waiting period for congressional visits in the past, though her policy was declared illegal by a federal judge. Last year, 12 members of Congress — some of whom had been denied access to DHS facilities despite the federal law guaranteeing such access — sued Ms. Noem and ICE in order to reverse the policy. In December, Judge Jia Cobb ruled that Ms. Noem’s budget required that lawmakers have unfettered access to her deportation processing and detention facilities. “Where the issue of access to ICE facilities has already been the subject of negotiation between the political branches and resolved through the passage of a presidentially-signed appropriations bill, one which Plaintiffs allege is now being ignored, the Court does not find that this dispute is ‘fully susceptible to political resolution,’” Judge Cobb wrote at the time. The lead plaintiff in that lawsuit, Congressman Joe Neguse, says that the new policy announced on Friday is a clear attempt to circumvent Judge Cobb’s ruling from last month. “This policy is a clear attempt to subvert the ruling — a mere 3 weeks ago — in Neguse et al. v. ICE et al. We will challenge it in court immediately,” Mr. Neguse wrote on X Saturday night. The attempts to bar lawmakers’ access to ICE facilities comes after Democrats began demanding serious investigations into the deportation agency following Good’s death last week. Senator Amy Klobuchar says she is especially concerned about DHS officials’ comments following the shooting last week, which have included claims that Good was a “domestic terrorist” who intentionally tried to run over the ICE agent. “While our immigration enforcement should be focused on apprehending and prosecuting violent criminals to make our communities safer, these ICE actions are doing the opposite and making our state less safe,” she said. Senator Chris Murphy could also become an important player in oversight of Ms. Noem’s department in the wake of Good’s death. He is the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee which writes Ms. Noem’s budget, giving him immense power over how ICE operates. “Republicans need Democratic votes in order to pass a budget for the Department of Homeland Security,” Mr. Murphy told “Meet the Press” on Sunday, highlighting the fact that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to bring an appropriations bill to the floor. “It’s reasonable for Democrats — speaking on behalf of the majority of the American public who don’t approve of what ICE is doing — to say, ‘If you want to fund DHS, I want to fund a DHS that is operating in a safe and legal manner,” Mr. Murphy said Sunday.

Democrats Promise Legal Action After Noem Restricts Lawmakers’ Access to ICE Facilities

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