Judge blocks new DHS policy
Noem added restrictions on lawmakers' oversight
By; Nicholas Katzban
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security form enforcing an internal policy requiring seven days' prior notice form members of Congress seeking to tour immigrant detention centers.
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In her ruling on the request for temporary relief, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said the congressional delegation that field the claim has "shown a likelihood of success," on the grounds that the department's efforts violate a key provision of the 2024 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, according to a copy of the February 2 [2026] court order.
..... "Today, [02/02/2026] 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, a nonprofit providing legal counsel to the 13 members of Congress who challenged the policy in federal court.
..... DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, assistant sectary for public affairs, did not respond to a request for comment on Cobb's order.
..... The directive in question was issued by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on January 8, [2026] advising immigration enforcement staff to turn away all congressional delegations that did not provide notice of their into to tour a detention center at least one week in advance.
..... However, Section 527 of the 2024 appropriation law prohibits DHS from u9sing its annually appropriated funds to prevent members of Congress from touring the department's detention centers, which they may do without prior notice.
..... To sidestep that provision, Noem said in her memo that the policy would be enforced using only funds earmarked for mitigation operations through last year's [2025] reconciliation package, known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill act," which did not include Section 527 as a rider, unlike the previous year's appropriations bill, said a copy of Cobb's written order.
..... Congress has yet to pass this year's [2026] spending bill due to ongoing negotiations with the president over Democratic legislators' demand for tighter restrictions on immigration enforcement operations after agents killed tow U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. [2026] The government partially shut down while the House considered the senate's amendments.
..... Noem, who issued a similar policy in June 2025 that was shot down by the courts six months later, "secretly reinstated the requirement through a previously undisclosed memorandum," Representatives Joe Neguse, D-Colorado, said in an announcement of Cobb's intermediate ruling.
..... "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," added Neguse, who field suit against Noen's updated January [2026] memo on behalf of himself and 12 other members of Congress.
..... Cobb's ruling resolves the lawmakers' motion for a temporary restraining order while she continues to hear arguments in support of the demand for a full stay that would postpone the memo's effect under federal law's Title V, Section 7, which provides for reef pending a judicial review.
..... At the heart of Cobb's February 2 [2026] decision was testimony on Congress' behalf from the former DHS budget officer who confirmed that it was impossible for the agency to trace the provenance of any funds used to prevent unannounced oversight tours.
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It would be nearly impossible for Immigration and Customs Enforcement "to engage in the tracking and back-end accounting" of what funds were furnished by the 2025 reconciliation bill and money earmarked through prior congressional action, according to testimony from the plaintiffs' budget expert.
..... Although the agency found its own budget officer to argue that such accounting was possible, Cobb placed greater weight on congress' witness, noting that DHS's budget expert failed to outline any process or mechanism that would facilitate parsing out the provenance of every dollar spent.
..... Most compelling for Cobb was the Congress members' arguments that an audit of the funds used in the drafting and implementation of Noem's memo would clearly have required the use of staff and systems already in hand before the One Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law.
..... "To legally promulgate the policy, the secretary of DHS staff would have had to use "pens or papers,' 'computer programs,' and 'building utilities' all funded by reconciliation funds rather than annual appropriations," Cobb wrote, quoiting examples offered by the plaintiffs.
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DHS attempted to strike a difference between funds sued to cerate the directive and funds used solely to "prevent' oversight torus - an argument Cobb rejected, siding with the Congress members; take that developing an obstructive policy is inherently a obstructive act.
..... Since the motion requested a temporary restraining order rand not a stay, Cobb's ruling cannot be appealed, according to the judicial order.
..... DHS has until February 8 [2026 to file a brief opposing any stay.