Minnesota ICE Detention Area to Get Attorney Inspection Monday

Attorneys were scheduled to inspect a Minnesota federal building Monday morning to gather information for their proposed class suit alleging that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees have systematically been denied access to counsel, records show.

After emergency filings related to a dispute over ground rules for the visit, Judge Nancy Brasel ruled Sunday that attorneys on both sides could speak to detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building “on topics relevant to the case” but couldn’t bring in cellphones or cameras.

The Twin Cities area has been the recent focus of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign, and plaintiffs in the suit filed in late January said the crackdown “has created an unprecedented and dangerous level of chaos in Minnesota.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials over the weekend sent plaintiffs’ attorneys “ground rules” including a ban on cellphones and recording devices—and, ICE said, “the expectation is that counsel will not engage with detainees,” according to a Sunday filing from the plaintiffs.

“Critically, counsel for Plaintiffs note that the detainees are putative class members, and ICE’s attempt to bar Plaintiffs’ ability to access and learn facts from these putative clients is emblematic of the issues at the heart of this case,” the filing states.

Brasel ultimately said lawyers for both sides would be allowed to “interact” with detainees on relevant subjects.

Brasel, of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, ordered the visit after attorneys representing the government at a hearing couldn’t answer some of her questions because they hadn’t yet visited the building.

Most of the immigrant detainees caught up in the Minnesota surge have been brought to the Whipple Building, the plaintiffs say, whose detention areas have historically only been used for short-term holding.

And the building’s policies used to conform with ICE’s national standards for attorney access, but those policies have been abandoned in favor of far more restrictive ones, the plaintiffs say. Agents have falsely told attorneys that counsel visits were never allowed in the building, and detainees are rarely allowed timely phone calls, and when they are, the calls aren’t private, their complaint says.

The claims echo similar allegations made against ICE facilities around the country. Immigration attorneys say the limits on access to counsel make it easier for agents to persuade detainees to agree to be removed from the country. Federal judges in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have ordered the government to facilitate better attorney-client communication in immigrant detention facilities.

Plaintiffs in the Minnesota case say attorneys trying to get into the Whipple Building have been intimidated and threatened, and those who did make it in weren’t allowed to talk to their clients.

They want Brasel to enter a temporary restraining order requiring the government to give each detainee notice of their right to consult with an attorney and provide free, private attorney phone calls. Their proposed order would also require the building to facilitate in-person legal visits daily, including weekends and holidays.

In response, the government claims they already provide private phone calls and that the facility “lacks the space and the physical infrastructure” to accommodate in-person legal visits seven days a week.

Plaintiffs are represented by Fredrikson & Byron, Democracy Forward Foundation, and Dubner Legal.

The case is Advocates for Human Rights v. US Dep’t of Homeland Security, D. Minn., No. 0:26-cv-00749, order 2/8/26.