MINNEAPOLIS (CN) - A federal judge issued a blistering rebuke of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thursday, ruling that the federal government's policies and practices at a Minnesota detention facility "all but extinguish" a detainees' right to counsel.

In a 41-page-order, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ruled that the government's lack of evidence, against a mountain of claimed and backed violations by detainees and attorneys, created a gulf that is "simply too wide and too deep for defendants to overcome."

"Defendants allocated substantial resources to sending thousands of agents to Minnesota, detaining thousands of people, and housing them in their facilities," Brasel, a Donald Trump appointee, said. "Defendants cannot suddenly lack resources when it comes to protecting detainees' constitutional rights."

The temporary restraining order mandates ICE to provide detainees free, unmonitored phone calls to counsel within 24 hours of detention, in-person legal visitation seven days a week and bars any transfer of a detainee who has an established attorney-client relationship without the attorney's consent or a court order.

"The obstacles the government has put in place at [Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building] rise to the level of an unconstitutional infringement of noncitizen detainees' right to access counsel," Brasel said. "Defendants appear to implicitly recognize that these practices are unconstitutional, they spill most of their ink explaining that these are not their practices."

The ruling follows a class action filed by the Advocates for Human Rights, and a detained individual, who claim ICE's tactics intentionally isolated detainees from legal counsel to pressure them into self-deportation.

It also comes after a Feb. 6 hearing, where Brasel gave advocates and the Justice Department six days to fix the vast disconnect in evidence regarding the treatment of immigrant detainees.

"There's an enormous gap in the experience in the record of the declarants, and the statements you're making now," Brasel said to a Justice Department attorney at the hearing. "We can do a war on declarants all day long, you're not winning, and you know that."

Brasel hoped ordering Justice Department attorneys to personally visit the Whipple building would bridge the gap in evidence - but that was not the case.

The judge said federal officials have failed to dispute 19 detailed declarations from detainees and attorneys that she leaned heavily on in her ruling.

These accounts describe holding rooms at the Whipple federal building packed with 100 people in spaces meant for 20, where detainees slept standing in handcuffs and were denied medical care.

Beyond physical conditions, detainees detailed how ICE agents pressured individuals to sign self-deportation forms, and subjected them to inhumane conditions that made them "want to give up on their rights just to escape captivity."

ICE has reportedly denied attorneys access to the Whipple building, despite existing visitation rooms used in the past, and threatened those who attempted to proceed inside.

Brasel was particularly critical of the government's lackluster defense in response to the substantial amount of violations against it.

"Defendants offer threadbare declarations generally asserting, without examples or evidence, that ICE provides telephone access to counsel for noncitizens in its custody," she said. "The plaintiffs' declarations provide specifics of the opposite."

In a late-filed declaration Thursday, ICE officials claimed in-person visits were operationally challenging - citing that non-law enforcement being in visitation rooms would create a significant safety risk, and claiming that the master key to access the rooms is broken.

"The court is underwhelmed by this evidence," Brasel said - noting that during a hearing on Feb. 6, the government was unable to answer basic factual questions about the facility's operations.

The Justice Department has also held throughout the case that the Whipple building is a temporary holding area, not a detention facility - meaning ICE can deny counsel at Whipple as long as they provide it at a final detention center.

"DHS does not have free rein to violate noncitizens' right to access counsel along the way," Brasel said, countering that due process does not depend on what a location is classified as. "The United States Constitution - not Whipple's operational capacity or internal ICE policies - is what sets the floor for reasonable access to counsel."

Brasel also noted the government's failure to update the Online Detainee Locator System, leading to many individuals who are currently detained not showing up in searches.

The temporary restraining order will remain in effect until Feb. 26, and a second hearing will be held that day.

Source: Courthouse News Service