Lawyers allege Dept. of Homeland Security is denying legal counsel to Minnesota detainees

Thousands of people have been arrested during ICE operations in Minneapolis over the past two weeks. Multiple attorneys allege that for some of those detained, including at least one U.S. citizen, the Department of Homeland Security is denying their constitutional right to see an attorney.

Four attorneys told ABC News they have been denied access to their clients at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where they are being held, which they say would violate 5th and 6th Amendment rights to due process and the right to consult with counsel.

“ICE agents were physically restricting me from seeing them,” said one immigration attorney, who asked not to be identified. “I stood outside the attorney visitation room for about four hours on Thursday, trying to see one of my clients who had been there for multiple days. I kept saying, you got to let me see my client. And they just kept repeating, we don’t do attorney visitation.”

The Department of Homeland Security denied that any constitutional violations are taking place at the Whipple Federal Building.

In a statement, a spokesperson for DHS denied the attorneys’ claims, adding that all detainees “have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”

“The facts are illegal aliens in detention have access to phones they can use to contact their families and lawyers. Additionally,  ICE gives all illegal aliens arrested a court-approved list of free or low-cost attorneys. All detainees receive full due process,” the spokesperson said in part.

The immigration attorney told ABC News they have visited clients held on similar immigration charges at the Whipple building for the last decade without issue.  The visitation denials of the past week, they said, are new and unprecedented.

The Whipple building has been a primary facility where people detained during DHS’ “Operation Metro Surge” are being temporarily held. Most are eventually processed and sent to detention facilities across the country.

The building has also been the epicenter of clashes between anti-ICE protesters and federal agents since an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good on Jan. 7.

The attorneys who spoke to ABC News work independently of one another. ABC News is withholding the identity of three of them due to fears that federal agents could retaliate against their clients still in custody.

Attorneys say they have received a variety of explanations for why they cannot see their clients, including claims that they did not have appointments, that their clients did not ask for them by name, and that the Whipple building cannot accommodate attorney-client visits. None of those reasons is legally valid, according to the attorneys.

“There’s nothing in the Constitution that talks about accommodating the government,” said Attorney Robert Sicoli, who told ABC News he was denied access to his client at the building last Wednesday. “It is a violation of constitutional rights.”

“One ICE agent said if we let you see your clients, we would have to let all the attorneys see their clients, and imagine the chaos,” said another attorney who asked not to be named. “And I said to that person, yeah, you do have to let all the attorneys see their clients. You do have to accommodate that. That’s the Constitution. You chose to put them here. I didn’t bring this guy here, you did.”

Another attorney described going to the Whipple building to try to see his client, a U.S. citizen and an Iraq War veteran, who he says was a bystander to an immigration enforcement operation near his home.

“They told me that because my client had not requested me by name, that I could not see him,” the prominent local criminal defense attorney told ABC News. “I’ve been practicing law in Minnesota for almost 20 years, and I have never been denied access to a client.”

The immigration attorney agreed.

“We’ve got blatant constitutional violations and they’re intentional, it’s not accidental, but nobody cares and they’re doubling down.”

That attorney described another example, trying to see a detained client who has severe medical concerns and needs specific medications.

“His family had been trying to drop off medications, and his family had not confirmed that he had received the medications that he needs for his life,” said the attorney. “So, I specifically told ICE that I need to talk to this guy to make sure he got his medications. And they wouldn’t let me see him.”

All attorneys ABC News spoke to called the DHS denial a blatant lie, citing their own personal experiences as proof.

The immigration attorney also said access to an attorney by phone is different from access to an attorney in person.

“If ICE is trying to say, ‘Oh, it’s fine, you can just have your client call you and you can talk and discuss their case over the phone,’ that’s absolutely unacceptable from an attorney-client standpoint. [Federal authorities] can and likely are listening in to those phone calls.”

In recent months, other attorneys have raised similar claims in cities also grappling with a surge of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. In September in New York City, a federal judge ordered that DHS provide detainees a way to make confidential calls to their lawyers within 24 hours of being detained at a holding facility at 26 Federal Plaza.

In October, detainees at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, filed a lawsuit claiming they were being held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions as well as being denied confidential and efficient access to counsel.

“It hurts your head the types of legal violations they are engaging in and the games they’re playing,” said the criminal defense attorney. “It’s disgusting.  This is not the America I love.”