AURORA | Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow and a group of Democratic colleagues are returning to federal court to challenge what they say is a renewed effort by the Trump administration to “secretly” block unannounced congressional oversight of immigration detention facilities, according to a statement issued by Crow Monday.
Crow and fellow Democratic lawmakers are asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene after the Department of Homeland Security quietly issued a memo requiring members of Congress to give seven days’ notice before visiting federal immigration detention centers.
Details of that memo and how Crow discovered it were not immediately released.
The renewed legal challenge follows a December ruling in which a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing advance-notice requirements, siding with Crow and other lawmakers who sued after being denied access to detention centers, including the privately run GEO ICE facility in Aurora. That decision restored what the lawmakers described as their ability to conduct oversight “on behalf of the American people.”
Under federal law, members of Congress are permitted to conduct unannounced oversight visits of federal facilities, including those operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Crow previously sued the Trump administration after he was denied access to an ICE detention facility in Aurora in July 2025.
The administration had attempted to impose a similar advance-notice requirement earlier, but a federal court in December upheld lawmakers’ right to conduct unannounced visits. Crow’s latest court filing asks a judge to require the administration to explain how the new policy complies with federal law.
“The Department of Homeland Security is attempting to get around this order by re-imposing the same unlawful policy,” Crow and other lawmakers said in a joint statement. “Oversight is a core responsibility of Members of Congress, and a constitutional duty we do not take lightly.”
Several other members of Congress have joined Crow as plaintiffs in the lawsuit after being denied access to detention facilities. They include Reps. Joe Neguse of Colorado, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat of New York, Jimmy Gomez, Norma Torres, Raul Ruiz, Robert Garcia and Lou Correa of California.
Crow has made oversight of immigration detention facilities a priority during his tenure in Congress, introducing bipartisan legislation to guarantee lawmakers the right to conduct unannounced, in-person visits to ICE facilities. He has visited the Aurora detention facility 10 times since 2019, according to his office, and his staff have conducted more than 80 oversight visits.
