Oregon groups push for attorney access for immigration detainees

EUGENE, Ore. (CN) — Federal immigration officers are violating the law by refusing detainees access to counsel before moving them out of the state or out of the country, a pair of nonprofits bolstered by witnesses argued before a federal judge on Thursday.

“What plaintiffs request is nothing more and nothing less than the constitutional right to counsel at Oregon field offices,” said Tess Hellgren, attorney with Innovation Law Lab.

Clear Clinic, a Portland, Oregon-based pro bono law firm, and Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, a nonprofit representing Latino farmworkers, sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier in October, accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers of blocking detainees from having access to lawyers.

The nonprofits say detainees are held in ICE facilities for mere hours before being transferred to larger facilities out of state, which denies them access to lawyers. The government argues that deferring meetings with potential counsel before transferring detainees is not the same as denying counsel.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, a Bill Clinton appointee, earlier declined the nonprofits’ emergency motion for a temporary restraining order to force the Department of Homeland Security to make sure detained migrants in Oregon have access to attorneys.

Bringing in witnesses to bolster their motion for a preliminary injunction, the nonprofits argued that the federal government neglected to ensure detainees were presented with access to counsel amid a surge in immigration arrests statewide in recent months.

“There’s been a lot of trauma in our community,” testified Marlina Campos, the organizing director of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste.

Campos described the fear the group’s members feel on a daily basis with some being afraid to get groceries or fill up their gas tanks. Many of the group’s members speak little English and would not be able to understand orders or documents from immigration officials if they were detained.

“It feels like terrorism, that’s what it feels like,” Campos said.

Leon X, the only individual plaintiff in the suit, described his own fear that he would be deported despite having been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and having a pending application for U Nonimmigrant Status.

Two attorneys described the increased barriers they have faced entering Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities recently.

“They’ve curtailed my abilities largely to represent people before ICE,” testified Katrina Kilgren, a Eugene-based immigration attorney.

Kilgren was once able to accompany clients into the building, but said she has barely been allowed in the waiting room as sweeps have ramped up over the past several months.

“The ICE office is a really important place to exercise people’s rights,” Kilgren said. “People are being encouraged to give up their rights.”

Josephine Moberg, an attorney for Clear Clinic, said she’s faced a repeated lack of access when attempting to visit established clients or potential clients at ICE field offices. Some have even been deported before she’s had a chance to make contact, she said.

“It’s becoming a common occurrence every week,” she said.

In June, President Donald Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social, that he was ordering ICE agents to “do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

According to the plaintiffs and other advocates, the administration has given ICE a daily quota of 3,000 arrests. The result, they say, are indiscriminate, mass roundups of Latinos all over the country.

The federal government argued that the federal court lacked jurisdiction over the case and that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to pursue their claims. Further, it argued that immigrants arrested and detained by ICE field officers don’t have a due process right to counsel.

“I can’t stress enough that the government emphatically opposes any injunction that would restrict our abilities to protect the safety of our federal officers and detainees by limiting where and how long they can be detained,” said Michael Velchik, attorney with the Department of Justice.

The nonprofits are asking the court to provide 12 hours of continuous attorney access and provide space for nonprofit groups to provide detainees with a free legal orientation.

“We think that’s insane,” Velchik said.

The nonprofit groups argued that quick access to legal representation is an essential right for detained individuals.

“Without access to counsel, individuals may be swept away and detained for a significant amount of time and deported before they have an opportunity to challenge the arrest,” Hellgren argued.

Aiken did not indicate when she would rule.