The government must reach an agreement on the right to counsel for people in Minnesota ICE facilities, the judge said

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal lawyers have until next Thursday to reach an agreement with human rights lawyers 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 have been denied adequate access to lawyers, including in-person meetings. Attorney Jeffrey Dubner said detainees are allowed to make phone calls, but ICE employees are usually nearby.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brassell told Justice Department attorney Christina Parascandola that there appears to be a “very wide factual disconnect” between what human rights lawyers have alleged and the government’s claim of adequate access to what ICE has characterized as only a temporary holding facility.

Paraskandola said people incarcerated at the facility can access counseling and unmonitored phone calls anytime and as long as they need it. He admitted that he had never been there.

Brassell called her argument a “tough sell,” noting that the case record contained more evidence to support the plaintiffs’ claims than the government’s assurances.

“The gap here is so big that I don’t know how you’re going to close it,” the judge said.

Instead of ruling on the spot, Brassell asked the two sides to meet with a retired judge who would mediate and help bridge some gaps already. He noted at the start of the hearing that both sides agreed that “some degree of reasonable access” to legal counsel was constitutionally required but that they differed on the details of what that would look like.

If the parties do not reach a partial agreement by at least 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, the judge said she will then issue her order. She did not reveal which way to rule.

A member of Congress condemned the conditions at the detention center

The facility is part of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which is the center of ICE operations and has been the scene of frequent protests.

Democratic US Rep. of Minnesota. Kelly Morrison said in a statement Friday that conditions at the detention center are still bad. The doctor said she learned during her visit Thursday night that the facility had no protocols in place to prevent the spread of measles from Texas to Minnesota. At least two incidents were reported this week at a major ICE detention center in Texas.

Some Minnesota inmates have been sent to Texas facilities along with families with children, and some have returned to Minnesota after court intervention, including 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father.

“It is abundantly clear that Whipple is not fully equipped to handle what the Trump administration is up to with their brutal and chaotic ‘Operation Metro Surge,'” Morrison said in a statement. “I am appalled by the inability or unwillingness of federal agents to answer the most basic questions about operations and protocols.”

Although 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 deny him entry for about half an hour and finally demanded he leave before being allowed inside.

In his first attempt last month, Morrison and fellow Minnesota Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig were turned away.

After he was able to enter the facility last weekend, Morrison said no real medical care was provided to the people held there.

Craig and Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum said they were turned away after they tried to visit the overnight facility despite a court order.

“We have heard numerous reports that detainees are being held in unlivable conditions at Whipple,” the two representatives said in a statement. “We have every reason to believe that this administration is once again lying through its teeth and trying to hide from all of us the truth — that they are ignoring due process and treating immigrants as political pawns, not people.”

A man has been charged with vandalizing an anti-ice statue

An immigration crackdown supporter who posted a video on social media of him kicking an anti-Ice statue outside the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul was released from jail Friday after being charged with a felony count of criminal damage to property.

Lt. Mike Lee, spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol, said Capitol Security saw Jake Lang, 30, of Lake Worth, Florida, damaged in the display Thursday afternoon. He was arrested a short distance away. The ice sculpture read “Prosecute ICE.”

During his first court appearance, Lang has yet to be arraigned but was ordered to stay at least three blocks away from the Capitol. Court records did not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

Long was overwhelmed by large crowds last month when he tried to hold a small rally in Minneapolis in support of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Long was charged with assault on an officer and other crimes before receiving a pardon as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping intervention on behalf of the defendants on January 6 last year.