Minnesota detainee files class action over feds blocking counsel

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) — Federal immigration agents in Minnesota are pressuring detainees into waiving their rights while holding them in a facility unfit for human habitation, according to a class action from a Minnesota advocacy group.

The Advocates for Human Rights and a detained individual filed the 18-page complaint in federal court late Tuesday, challenging “unlawful detention practices” at federal facilities in Minnesota — specifically at the Bishop Henry Whipple Building, named in honor of a 19th-century activist who fought for the rights of noncitizens.

The advocacy group claims the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with other federal agencies and officials, are violating the First and Fifth Amendments, as well as the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“We continue to oppose the Trump-Vance administration’s form of ‘catch me if you can’ justice,” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, said in a press release Wednesday. “The administration is detaining people in a federal facility that was never meant for long-term custody, denying them access to counsel, shackling them during secretive transfers, and using fear and exhaustion to pressure them into giving up their rights."

The lead unnamed plaintiff has been a St. Paul resident since 2019, and was arrested Tuesday during a routine check-in while her asylum application was pending. Her attorneys state that ICE refused to let them speak with her so that a habeas petition could be filed.

The advocacy group details a pattern of obstruction in the complaint, claiming ICE agents have refused to allow detainees to make outgoing phone calls until after they are “booked” — a process that often results in a detainee being transferred out of the state.

The group says that even when detainees are permitted to make a phone call, there is no place to do so privately, and ICE personally “can and do listen” to their phone calls — adding to the pressure on those in custody.

Attorneys have also reportedly been threatened with arrest for attempting to visit their clients at the Whipple building, despite receiving permission from officials to use the designated visitation rooms. The plaintiffs also point to two federal judge rulings in New York and Illinois ordering ICE to provide detainees with adequate access to counsel in their respective states.

The lawsuit follows a formal demand for transparency from Minnesota’s top lawmakers. Last week, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith called on ICE to immediately restore access to counsel for detainees.

The dramatic increase in detentions in Minnesota follows “Operation Metro Surge,” a large-scale DHS enforcement campaign that began last month in the Twin Cities. On Jan. 19, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed ICE had arrested somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 immigrants in Minneapolis since the operation began.

The vast majority of those arrested have reportedly been transported to the Whipple building just outside of Minneapolis — previously used only for short-term holding due to lacking beds, adequate toilets and other infrastructure. The advocacy group is seeking immediate court intervention to restore detainees’ right to access counsel, and prevent retaliatory and obstructive practices by ICE and DHS agents that block legal representation.

The plaintiffs also challenge the government’s use of the civilian federal building as an unauthorized detention center. The Whipple building has recently become a central point of tension in Minneapolis, drawing mass protests following the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers.

This case adds to a growing pile of litigation between Minnesota and the federal government, and comes just days after a chief federal judge threatened to hold the acting ICE director in contempt for flouting previous court orders to release certain detained individuals.