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Immigration attorneys to inspect Whipple Building
Immigration rights attorneys are set to inspect the ICE headquarters in the Twin Cities at the Whipple Building on Monday, following a court order this past weekend.
(FOX 9) - A group of civil rights attorneys have detailed their visit to the Whipple Federal Building used to hold detainees during Operation Surge in Minnesota.
Whipple inspection findings
What we know:
Kim Boche and Hanne Sandison of the Advocates for Human Rights filed their findings in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota on Tuesday, outlining a Feb. 9 visit between 8:30 and 10 a.m.
In the findings, Boche describes approximately 40 detainees being held in seven rooms, with separate rooms labeled "medical," "admin" and "property." Other rooms, however, remained empty.
Boche describes being able to verify that a phone box on a wall – which resembled a payphone – was actively connected. However, when she made a call to her cell phone, the missed call was received from Marion County Detention Center in Kentucky.
Sandison notes that, "above each such phone there were a few sheets of stapled paper in a plastic pouch, containing a list of consulates," but that, "the instructions were difficult to understand."
Boche describes conducting interviews with detainees in holding cells, describing one man who said he had been in the country for 10 years prior to being taken into custody, but did not know who to call for legal help. Another woman described spending the night without a blanket, the findings detail.
Similarly, Sandison noted in the findings that she "did not see any detainee who had a blanket, pillow, sleeping pad, or cot. I saw men sleeping on the floor with no bedding."
Both Sandison and Boche report seeing piles of trash, including food waste such as rotten apple cores, on the floors next to detainees with "no readily available trash receptacles."
They also describe being "cut short by DHS staff conducting the tour."
Argument to inspect Whipple Building
The backstory:
Judge Nancy Brasel issued an order allowing attorneys involved in a lawsuit over detainment at the Whipple Building access to the detention facilities at the federal building.
The inspection comes as a result of a lawsuit filed by The Advocates for Human Rights and a woman living in St. Paul who has a pending asylum application over access to counsel at the Whipple Building, the federal building which houses the regional ICE field offices in Minnesota.
The lawsuit argues that since the launch of Operation Metro Surge, the Department of Homeland Security has wrongly limited detainees' access to attorneys at the Whipple Building.