MINNEAPOLIS (CN) – A Minnesota federal judge dealt another blow to the Trump administration Thursday, damaging the government’s credibility and strengthening an order protecting lawyers’ access to a detention center.
In it 69 page listingU.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel chided the Trump administration’s disregard for the basic right to counsel for inmates and its failure to plan for the apparent impact of “Operation Metro Surge.”
“Due process is not an escape game. ICE recognizes detainees’ right to access to counsel in theory and written policy, but not in practice,” the Donald Trump appointee wrote, alluding to a consistent theme of inaccurate accounts by the government throughout the existence of the case.
“Instead, it has placed barrier after barrier in front of detainees and their lawyers, blocking communication between clients and lawyers,” she added.
Brasel said the government has made significant but inconsistent efforts to improve access to lawyers since then February restraining order was issued – leaving her with no choice but to issue a preliminary injunction.
While acknowledging the safety and security needs of a detention center gives the government some respect, Brasel said the flippant and inconsistent nature of the government’s defense destroyed its credibility.
“Sometimes defendants argue that they are not creating an obstacle. Other times they argue that the obstacle is necessary for operational or safety concerns,” she wrote. “Even under the most generous standards, the restrictions defendants placed on prisoners’ access to counsel in Whipple are excessive and not rationally related to legitimate goals.”
Brasel mandates that all detainees held at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Hennepin County, Minnesota, be provided with a signed order outlining their rights, including unlimited and free phone calls and lawyer visits — and for the government to protect those rights to a tee.
The case is derived from an initial class action filed by Lawyers for Human Rights and a detainee who said Minnesota immigration agents pressure detainees to waive their rights and limit attorney access to the Whipple building.
According to the attorney’s testimony, any phone calls allowed to detainees were brief, often lasting only minutes, and almost always closely monitored by federal agents.
Whipple’s building has long offered in-person attorney-client communication that Brasel and attorneys said was abruptly cut off once Operation Metro Surge began in December — and abruptly returned after court intervention.
Long rehearsal sessions on March 19 and 20, lawyers submitted 20 attorney statements, five attorney testimony, and two detainee testimony.
On the other hand, the government presented a single testimony from deputy field office director Tauria Rich that Brasel said carried little weight.
“Rich was on the witness stand for more than two hours, and her testimony quickly proved inconsistent at best and implausible at worst,” Brasel wrote. “Rich stated things in vague terms that were often contradicted by specific evidence or her previous words.”
In one case, Rich claimed that the government did not detain individuals overnight in the federal Whipple Building—a claim contradicted by the government’s own records and multiple inmate accounts.
While the Justice Department argued that the case was moot because of the supposed end of the enforcement operation, Brasel said there was no indication that the illegal treatment could not be expected to happen again and there was no existing precedent for violating rights just because the going gets tough.
“The requested relief is not related to the duration of Operation Metro Surge,” Brasel wrote. “The withdrawal did not resolve the access to counsel issues at the heart of this lawsuit.”
Additionally, attorneys for the detainees said the difference in access to counsel to Whipple before and after Brasel’s restraining order is “night and day” — an influence used to prompt the court’s continued intervention during the March hearings.
Lawyers say they are now able to meet with clients instead of going back to the parking lot, and the number of arrestees who have been smuggled out of the country has dropped.
Before the restraining order, even in some cases, lawyers said they were forced to file habeas petitions for detainees they had never even spoken to, getting as much information as they could from family members and the Internet.
“I have to gather the information I need from a variety of sources. It makes it significantly more stressful,” attorney Kira Kelley said at the March 19 hearing. “When I’m filing habeas petitions, I often try to do them at all hours of the day and night because I know if I don’t file a habeas petition in time, that person can be transported to another state or out of the country.”
Brasel also granted the attorneys’ motion for class certification.
The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing arguments provides the latest on ongoing trials, major litigation and decisions in courts around the US and the world, while monthly Under the lights feeds legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
