DHS Shutdown and Funding Fights

The Department of Homeland Security told a D.C. federal court that, because Congress has allowed DHS funding to lapse in a department‑only shutdown, it now has legal room to reinstate a policy requiring members of Congress to give seven days’ notice before visiting ICE detention centers. Government lawyers argued there is "no lawful basis" for continuing an injunction that has twice blocked the policy, saying ICE needs advance notice to marshal staff and resources for visits and that courts should not referee what they frame as an internal legislative dispute. Thirteen House Democrats, including Reps. Jamie Raskin, Joe Neguse and Dan Goldman, previously sued, saying past appropriations explicitly preserved their ability to conduct unannounced inspections and that surprise visits have exposed overcrowded and unsafe conditions that DHS would rather keep out of view. Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, recently reaffirmed her block on the rule, finding it irreparably harms lawmakers’ ability to conduct 'timely oversight' at a moment when Trump’s immigration crackdown and detention practices are under intense national scrutiny. DHS is now effectively using the shutdown that grew out of those same enforcement controversies to argue for tighter control over who sees conditions inside its facilities and when, setting up another test of how much transparency Congress can force on an executive branch that plainly prefers to manage what the public and press get to see.