Class-Action Lawsuit Exposes Unlawful Tactics that Include Transferring Non-Citizens Out of Minnesota Before They Can Communicate with Their Lawyers
Minneapolis, Minn. — The Advocates for Human Rights and a detained individual have filed a class action lawsuit that challenges the Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful detention practices at detention facilities in Minnesota. Amidst aggressive action by federal agencies, people are being detained without access to lawyers and denied confidential communication – all actions that violate the Constitution, federal law, and basic human rights. Democracy Forward and Fredrikson & Byron P.A. represent the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit challenges officials in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and federal security officials for deliberately blocking access to counsel for immigrants detained at the most critical moments of detention. Many are being transferred out of Minnesota or being pressured to abandon their rights before attorneys have any meaningful opportunity to reach them.
Individuals who have been detained at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis reveal violent arrests, extreme overcrowding, and constant shackling. DHS is further perpetuating these horrific conditions by blocking detainees from accessing legal counsel to seek their freedom. One 19-year-old Minnesota resident described being thrown to the ground when he tried to show officers his immigration papers, despite not resisting. “I was never offered a lawyer at any point,” he said. After being held in a cell packed far beyond capacity, he was shackled at the wrists, ankles, and waist, placed on a bus and a plane, and transferred out of state without being told where he was going. “I felt like I had been kidnapped,” he stated.
Another detainee, a refugee living in Minneapolis, described being surrounded by roughly 20 officers, pulled from his car, mocked by agents, and detained in a room that eventually filled with nearly 100 people. According to his testimony, detainees were forced to sleep standing up near an overflowing toilet with no privacy, denied beds and blankets, and allowed to make a few phone calls only under constant surveillance. “It’s like they’re trying to drive you crazy,” he said. “Most of them treated us like animals.” He explained that ICE personnel pressured people to sign self-deportation papers and refused to let him speak with a lawyer, even though he believed—correctly—that his refugee status protected him from detention.
“Access to counsel is a fundamental human right, helping ensure due process in a hostile immigration system,” said Michele Garnett McKenzie, Executive Director of The Advocates for Human Rights. “When DHS restricts the ability of people to speak confidentially with their attorneys at the most crucial moments of their cases, the result is unjustified detention and suffering, and potentially removal to countries where detainees face the risk of persecution, torture, and death. The government must allow us to speak to our clients as required under federal law and the Constitution.”
“We continue to oppose the Trump-Vance administration’s form of ‘catch me if you can’ justice,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “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. This is a deliberate strategy to evade accountability, and it violates the Constitution and federal law. Access to a lawyer is a fundamental right in the United States. We call on all lawyers across the nation to commit to the defense of access to counsel and the rule of law.”
“The constitutional right to access to counsel is key to our system of justice. As lawyers, we have a duty to ensure that no person in government custody is denied the opportunity to understand their rights and receive fair treatment under the law,” said Alethea Huyser, attorney at Fredrikson & Byron.
The lawsuit seeks immediate court intervention to restore meaningful access to counsel, require confidential attorney-client communications, and prevent retaliatory and obstructive practices that block legal representation. It also challenges the federal government’s use of a civilian federal building as an unauthorized detention center without the safeguards required by law.
The case is The Advocates for Human Rights et al v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al., and the legal team at Democracy Forward includes Elena Goldstein, Jeff Dubner, Aman George, Mark Samburg, and Anashua Dutta.
Read the filing here.
A Spanish version of this press release is available here.
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