MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys for the federal government have until next Thursday to reach an agreement with human rights advocates seeking to ensure the right to counsel for people detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Minnesota, a judge said Friday.
Advocates said people held at the facility on the outskirts of Minneapolis who face possible deportation are denied adequate access to lawyers, including in-person meetings. Attorney Jeffrey Dubner said inmates are allowed to make phone calls, but ICE personnel are usually nearby.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel told Justice Department attorney Christina Parascandola that there appears to be a “very wide real disconnect” between what human rights advocates are arguing and the government’s claims for adequate access to what ICE describes as nothing more than a temporary detention facility.
Parascandola said inmates at the facility have access to counseling and unmonitored phone calls at any time and for as long as they need. She admitted she had never been there.
Brasel called her argument “a tough sell,” noting that there is far more evidence in the case file to support the plaintiffs’ claims than the government’s assurances.
“The gap here is so enormous that I don’t know how you’re going to close it,” the judge said.
Instead of ruling on the spot, Brasel told both sides to meet next with a retired judge who mediates and has already helped bridge some gaps. She noted at the start of the hearing that both sides agreed that “some degree of reasonable access” to legal counsel is constitutionally required, but differed on the details of what that should look like.
If the parties do not reach at least a partial agreement by 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, the judge said he will issue the order then. She did not specify which way she would lead.
A member of Congress condemns the conditions in the detention center
The facility is part of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which is a center of ICE operations and has been the scene of frequent protests.
Democratic U.S. Representative Kelly Morrison of Minnesota said in a statement Friday that conditions at the detention center continue to be poor. The doctor said he learned during his visit Thursday night that the facility does not have protocols in place to prevent measles from spreading to Minnesota from Texas. At least two cases were reported at a major ICE detention center in Texas this week.
Some Minnesota inmates, including families with children, were sent to the Texas facility, and some returned to Minnesota after the courts intervened, including 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father.
“It is very clear that Whipple is not at all equipped to deal with what the Trump Administration is doing with the cruel and chaotic ‘Operation Metro Surge,'” Morrison said in a statement. “I am appalled by the inability or unwillingness of federal agents to answer some of the most basic questions about their operations and protocols.”
Even though a federal judge ruled Monday that members of Congress have the right to make unannounced visits to ICE facilities, Morrison said in a statement that agents tried to bar her entry for nearly half an hour and asked her to leave before finally letting her in.
In his first attempt last month, Morrison and fellow Minnesota Democrats Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig were rejected.
After gaining access to the building last weekend, Morrison said no real medical care is provided to people held there.
Craig and Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum said they were turned away, despite the court order, when they tried to visit the overnight facility.
“We have heard numerous reports that inmates are being held in substandard conditions at Whipple,” the two representatives said in a statement. “We have every reason to believe that this administration is once again lying to them through their teeth and trying to hide what we all know to be true — that they are ignoring due process and treating immigrants as political pawns, not people.”
Man charged with murder for destroying anti-ICE sculpture
An immigration crackdown advocate who posted a video on social media of himself taking down an anti-ICE sculpture outside the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, was released from jail Friday after being charged with misdemeanor property damage.
Lt. Mike Lee, a spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol, said Capitol Security observed Jake Lang, 30, of Lake Worth, Fla., damage the display Thursday afternoon. He was arrested a short distance away. The ice sculpture read “Prosecute ICE”.
At his first court appearance, Lang was released pending trial but ordered to stay at least three blocks away from the Capitol. Court records did not include an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Lang was drowned out by a large crowd last month when he tried to hold a small rally in Minneapolis in support of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer and other crimes before being granted clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s major intervention on behalf of the defendants on January 6 last year.