WATCH LIVE: Noem testifies at Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on DHS surveillance

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday agreed to temporarily suspend the latest version of a Trump administration policy that requires members of Congress to provide a week’s notice before they can visit immigration detention facilities.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at 9 a.m. EST. Watch the live stream in our video player above.

U.S. District Judge Gia Cobb in Washington ruled that a group of Democratic lawmakers is likely to succeed in showing that the seven-day notice requirement is illegal and exceeds the government’s legal authority.

The Republican administration did not cite any “concrete examples of safety issues posed by unannounced congressional visits,” the judge said.

Thirteen members of the House of Representatives have filed a lawsuit challenging the January 8 policy issued by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Cobb had blocked an earlier version of the policy in December. It ruled that it is likely unlawful for ICE to require a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and monitor conditions in ICE facilities.

“Plaintiffs are undoubtedly frustrated by Defendants’ repeated attempts to enforce the notice requirement,” Cobb wrote. “But in taking further action, defendants must abide by the terms of the court’s order and act consistent with the legal principles stated in this opinion.”

However, Noem secretly reinstated the further notice requirement one day after an ICE officer shot and killed US citizen Rene Judd in Minneapolis. It was almost identical to the version that Cobb banned in December.

Three days after the deadly shooting, three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were banned from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security did not unveil the new version of the policy until after U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig were initially kept from the facility, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.

The law prohibits the government from using appropriated public funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for surveillance purposes. Cobb found it “highly likely” that President Donald Trump’s administration used restricted funds to issue and implement the new policy.

Cobb was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.