Minneapolis, Minn. — New evidence filed in federal court by Democracy Forward and Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. has revealed ongoing efforts by federal immigration officials to obstruct detained immigrants’ access to legal counsel during a sweeping enforcement operation in Minnesota.
The evidence, including attorney declarations and documents obtained through court-ordered discovery, details how federal officials denied attorneys access to their clients, failed to answer phones or respond to emails from lawyers seeking to locate detained individuals, and transferred people out of state before they could assert their legal rights. Phone records disclosed in discovery show that at the height of Operation Metro Surge, phone access for detainees to have confidential attorney-client communications at the Whipple Building was effectively ended. Between January 3 and February 4, detainees at the Whipple Building were unable to complete any phone calls from hold rooms, where the government had previously touted “free, unlimited phone calls” for people in ICE custody. Phone access only began to be restored the day before the first hearing in this case.
The filings are part of The Advocates for Human Rights et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al., a lawsuit to block the Trump-Vance administration’s practice of holding people at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minnesota without allowing confidential communication with counsel, while rapidly transferring many out of state before they can speak to an attorney. The plaintiffs include The Advocates for Human Rights, a nonprofit legal organization that provides free immigration legal services, and L.H.M., a Minnesota resident with a pending asylum application who was detained by federal officials.
“Litigation is doing exactly what it is supposed to do: forcing the truth out into the open,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “What we are seeing in these filings is deeply troubling: people detained without access to lawyers, families unable to locate loved ones, and federal officials ignoring the most basic safeguards of due process. The record now shows two things: the seriousness of the violations and the power of the courts to stop them. We will continue to use every legal tool available to ensure that the Constitution applies to everyone and that the government is held accountable when it breaks the law.”
In February, the U.S. District Court of Minneapolis granted a temporary restraining order blocking many of the government’s practices and ordered expedited discovery. The court found that plaintiffs had presented substantial evidence that federal officials were interfering with immigrants’ access to legal counsel and likely violating constitutional protections.
The new filings confirm both the severity of those practices and the critical role litigation has played in exposing them. Before the court intervened, individuals detained in Minnesota were routinely transferred to Texas before attorneys could reach them or even confirm where they were being held. Attorneys reported phones going unanswered, email inquiries ignored, and visits denied even when lawyers arrived at detention sites with court orders in hand.
Attorney declarations filed in the case describe how detainees kept from counsel were shackled during transfers, denied bathroom access on flights, and subjected to degrading conditions. Declarations also describe lawyers repeatedly calling government offices and making dozens of calls without response, while trying to locate detained clients. In one instance, a lawyer waited more than four hours to see a client who officials said was inside, only to later learn that the person had been transferred during that time.
The evidence also shows that basic safeguards required by the court’s order remain inconsistent or incomplete. For example, government documents indicate that notices explaining detainees’ rights were provided only in English, despite the court’s requirement for translations into multiple languages.
At the same time, the filings demonstrate that court intervention has already made a significant difference. Since the court issued its order, attorneys have reported improvements in some cases, including the ability to meet with detained clients and the fact that individuals are no longer being rapidly transferred out of state before they can consult with counsel. In one instance described in the filings, an attorney was able to meet privately with a detained client and review documents that proved critical to the client’s case, saying, “ICE agents’ behavior towards us was night and day from what I had experienced before the [court] Order. It made a world of difference…”
The legal team at Democracy Forward on this matter includes Jeff Dubner, Anashua Dutta, Aman George, Mark Samburg, and Elena Goldstein.
Learn more about this case here and read the filing here.
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