Immigration and Customs Enforcement must grant attorneys access to detainees held in a Minnesota detention facility, a federal court ruled Feb. 12.
The ruling responded to a class-action lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. The action accuses the agencies of subjecting noncitizen detainees to inhumane conditions and denying them basic due-process rights at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis.
“Today’s ruling is an important win for every single person in this country because it concerns our ability to access legal counsel,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which is co-litigating the case with the Fredrikson and Byron law firm.
“DHS has been detaining people in a building never meant for long-term custody, shackling them, secretly transferring them out of state, and blocking access to counsel and oversight in a deliberate effort to evade accountability,” she said.
Nancy Brasel
U.S District Judge Nancy Brasel in Minnesota said she issued the temporary restraining order because the plaintiffs provided detailed evidence of constitutional and physical abuses occurring at Whipple.
“In response, Defendants offer threadbare declarations generally asserting, without examples or evidence, that ICE provides telephone access to counsel for noncitizens in its custody,” Brasel said in her 41-page ruling.
The government also came up short during the Feb. 6 hearing held to consider defendants’ request for a temporary restraining order in the case.
“At the hearing, counsel for Defendants was unable to answer many of the factual questions posed by the Court, and Defendants noted more than once that they had ‘a very short window of time in which to respond,’” she wrote. Brasel said she subsequently granted another six days to prepare.
“Counsel for Defendants then said that they had not visited Whipple, but they would like to go, so they requested ‘time for supplemental briefing and to respond to some of these factual legal issues’ to ‘create a more fulsome record,’” Brasel said.
The court again granted the request and ordered that attorneys for both sides tour the facility by Feb. 9 and file supplemental declarations the following day, according to the order.
“When the government deprives people of liberty, it cannot avoid its constitutional responsibilities because it finds them inconvenient.”
“Plaintiffs submitted two supplemental declarations by the February 10, 2026, deadline. Defendants submitted none. No party requested any additional briefing,” Brasel noted.
But the Department of Homeland Security legal team wasn’t finished. Four hours before Brasel was to issue the order, they asked to file last-minute testimony from an administrator at the detention center. She accepted the filing shortly before issuing her order but said it did not change the facts.
Michele Garnett McKenzie
“Today the court recognizes the fundamental importance of access to counsel in ensuring basic due process,” said Michele Garnett McKenzie, executive director of The Advocates for Human Rights, one of the plaintiffs. “When the government deprives people of liberty, it cannot avoid its constitutional responsibilities because it finds them inconvenient. It’s appalling that we required a court ruling to defend this fundamental right.”
The order also confirms that access to counsel is not an option but a constitutional right in the United States, Fredrikson attorney Alethea Huyser said.
Alethea Huyser
“When the government systematically blocks people from speaking privately with their attorneys and rushes them out of state before they can mount a defense, it violates the very foundation of due process,” she said. “Today’s order ensures that no one detained at these facilities will be denied the basic legal protections that are guaranteed under our Constitution. This is a critical victory, not just for our clients, but for justice itself.”
The lawsuit was one of many to come out of the Trump administration’s brutal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which it called “Operation Metro Surge.”
Suits have been filed challenging the use of militarized agents, violent crowd-control measures, and warrantless searches and arrests. Plaintiffs range from the state of Minnesota and municipalities to school districts and civil rights organizations.
Related articles:
Lawsuit seeks to stop reversals of legal immigration status
Civil rights leaders issue warning call for Noem’s impeachment