A federal judge again ordered authorities to grant two Colorado congressmen and their colleagues unannounced access to immigration detention centers Monday.
The ruling is the latest blow to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s monthslong effort to slow congressional oversight of the facilities.
The temporary restraining order applied by U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb will once again allow members of Congress to access detention centers — like the one in Aurora — without prior notice to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
“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,” U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, of Boulder, said in a statement.
Neguse filed the lawsuit with a dozen other Democratic lawmakers, including fellow Coloradan U.S. Rep. Jason Crow.
The lawmakers initially sued last summer, after ICE blocked Crow, Neguse and other legislators from visiting the facilities.
The agency instituted a policy requiring seven days’ notice for conducting the visits, a requirement that appeared to violate a federal law allowing unannounced inspections. After Cobb temporarily blocked that policy in December, ICE instituted another in January, arguing the new policy required a different funding source that wasn’t bound by the provision in law allowing for the visits.
In her ruling Monday, Cobb appeared unconvinced by that argument. She noted her previous ruling, when she’d written that lawmakers faced “irreparable harm” if they were denied access to the facilities.
“If anything, the strength of that finding has become greater over the intervening weeks,” Cobb wrote in Monday’s order, “given that ICE’s enforcement and detention practices have become the focus of intense national and congressional interest.”
The order is temporary while the broader lawsuit plays out; Cobb wrote that it will expire in two weeks, unless the court intervenes.
“Following the law is not optional,” Crow, who represents Aurora, said in a statement. “2025 was the deadliest year at federal immigration facilities in decades. The Trump administration is using billions of taxpayer dollars to carry out a violent and lawless immigration agenda with virtually no transparency or accountability. Today’s ruling was another victory on behalf of oversight and work to hold this administration accountable.”
