Judge lifts Trump administration limits on lawmaker visits to ICE jails

Source: Politico

12/17/2025 04:26 PM EST


A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to limit members of Congress from visiting detention facilities operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled Wednesday that ICE cannot enforce newly adopted policies that require lawmakers to provide seven days notice before visiting detention facilities and entirely barring congressional visits to field offices being used to detain immigrants.

Those policies, adopted in June, appear to violate explicit language in federal funding laws — adopted annually since 2020 — that prohibit ICE from restricting lawmakers’ access to its facilities, Cobb concluded.

The Biden appointee noted that the seven-day notice requirement complicated lawmakers’ ability to view real-time conditions at facilities immigrants have long complained are overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe. And those conditions can change quickly if there’s a surge of arrests or a transfer of detainees to another location.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/17/ice-lawmaker-visits-policy-ruling-00695801