Noem Restricts Congressional ICE Oversight Day After Renee Good Killing

On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued an order to once again limit congressional visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, just a day after an immigration agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

In a memo, Noem directed ICE to bar congressional visits to ICE detention centers unless they request the visit seven days in advance. This timeline starts upon receipt of the request by the agency’s Office of Congressional Relations, and requests for a shorter timeline are to be approved directly by Noem, the memo says.

The guidelines are nearly identical to the policy issued by the agency in June, seeking to end unannounced visits to facilities by Congress.

That policy was struck down by a federal judge, Jia M. Cobb, just weeks ago. Cobb wrote that the policy likely violates legal mandates for members of Congress to conduct oversight of ICE facilities, and that the Department of Homeland Security appeared to have overstepped its statutory authority by using funds appropriated by Congress in order to bar visits.

Noem claimed in her memo that the ruling doesn’t apply to funds appropriated under Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act — an argument that lawmakers have called “complete nonsense.”

This policy appeared to already be in effect by Saturday, when three Democratic House representatives from Minnesota — Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig, and Kelly Morrison — tried to conduct an oversight visit to a Minneapolis ICE facility, the Whipple Federal Building, but were denied access by immigration officials.

Video footage outside the building shows the lawmakers being met by several dozen federal agents blocking the way into the facility. The lawmakers said that they were eventually let in by one official, but then other officials came in and rescinded their invitation to enter, and were barred from going further into the building.

“We were told because this facility is being funded by the ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ not the congressional appropriations act, that we would not be allowed to enter the facility. That’s complete nonsense,” said Craig in an interview with MS Now.

Craig said she had Cobb’s ruling with her, but the officials didn’t care to see it. “I informed them they were violating the law. They said they didn’t care,” she said.

“What happened today is a blatant attempt to obstruct members of Congress from doing their oversight duties. When we appropriate funds as members of Congress, we are expected by the public to do oversight because the public requires their money be used with transparency and accountability. And what happened today is ICE agents decided that we were no longer allowed to fulfill our constitutional duties,” Omar told reporters after the attempted visit.

Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colorado), one of the lawmakers on the lawsuit over the original policy, has already filed a lawsuit against the new policy as well.

“This policy is a clear attempt to subvert the ruling — a mere 3 weeks ago — in Neguse et al. v. ICE et al,” he wrote in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Noem is taking even more extreme steps to crack down on resistance to ICE in Minneapolis after Good’s killing.Noem said on Sunday that the Trump administration is sending “hundreds more” federal agents to Minnesota in response to growing resistance, and is now undertaking door to door raids.