Minnesota Judge Orders Attorney Access for Noncitizen Detainees

Noncitizens detained in Minneapolis’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement building must have access to attorney calls and be notified of their legal rights while a lawsuit against the agency runs its course, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

“Due process is not a game of keep-away. ICE recognizes detainees’ right to access counsel in theory and written policy, but not in practice. Instead, it has placed obstacle after obstacle in front of detainees and their attorneys, blocking communication between clients and counsel,” Judge Nancy E. Brasel of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota said.

Brasel’s decision converts her February temporary restraining order requiring ICE to allow in-person attorney visits and phone calls at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building into a preliminary injunction.

ICE has made “considerable but inconsistent efforts to improve attorney access and comply with the Court’s Order,” Brasel concluded based on declarations and testimony from attorneys and noncitizen detainees presented during an evidentiary hearing on March 19 and 20.

The preliminary injunction requires every noncitizen taken into custody be given contact information for free legal service providers within one hour of arriving at the facility and have access to private phone calls with lawyers free of charge. ICE can’t transfer detainees out of state during the first 72 hours of detention, and the agency must ensure that its online detainee locator system is up to date and accurate. Detainees who will be transferred must be allowed to make a phone call once they know where they’ll be moved to.

Brasel’s order is similar to those handed down by federal judges in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

The plaintiffs—nonprofit organization Advocates for Human Rights and a class of detainees—have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their Fifth Amendment access-to-counsel claim, the judge said.

Brasel declined, for now, to extend the preliminary injunction to non-Whipple facilities where detainees are held, such as hospitals, hotels, and county jails. Plaintiffs were only able to point to one instance of a detainee held at a hospital who had first been detained at Whipple, and they concede that no relief is needed for those detained at county jails, she said.

Plaintiffs’ concerns that ICE will skirt the 72-hour hold on out-of-state transfers by detaining noncitizens at a county jail and then transferring them outside of Minnesota “is, based on the present record, speculative,” Brasel said.

She added that plaintiffs can still present evidence supporting a wider class of people at non-Whipple facilities to be considered by the court upon a final motion for class certification.

The order is a “significant victory for people who are being detained” and denied access to attorneys, said Mark Samburg, senior counsel at Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs. “This decision sends a clear message that the administration cannot evade accountability by blocking access to counsel,” Samburg added.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fredrikson & Byron and Dubner Legal also represent the plaintiffs.

Advoc. for Hum. Rts. v. US Dep’t of Homeland Sec., D. Minn., No. 0:26-cv-00749, preliminary injunction 3/26/26