Federal court in Minnesota has ordered the government to allow clergy in-person pastoral visits to detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, a site where protests have erupted during a broader immigration enforcement surge. U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell granted an injunction on Friday, siding with a lawsuit filed by Minnesota branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ and by a Catholic priest who sued the Department of Homeland Security.
Blackwell’s order applies to clergy visits to all detainees at the Whipple building, which the injunction describes as the location of a holding facility tied to Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. The judge said the plaintiffs had met their burden for injunctive relief at this stage, finding they are likely to succeed when the case reaches a final conclusion.
In court, Blackwell also addressed the plaintiffs’ argument that limitations on religious access amount to irreparable harm. The judge concluded that restricting clergy visits to minister to detainees constitutes “irreparable harm,” and he therefore issued the injunction while the litigation continues.
Under Blackwell’s directive, the two sides were ordered to meet within four business days to try to agree on the details for how clergy access will work. The judge set a deadline of seven business days for the parties to submit a plan; if they cannot agree, each side would submit competing proposals addressing access terms that take into account the government’s security concerns.
One of the impacts of the previous restrictions was described by Bishop Jennifer Nagel, of the Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Nagel said she had been turned away from the Whipple facility when she tried to visit detainees on Ash Wednesday, and she said serving people in crisis is central to ministerial work across religious traditions.
Nagel told reporters after the hearing that the “trauma that families are going through, and individuals are going through, at these times is exorbitant. And so to be able to meet people in those needs, that’s very much at the core, the heart and soul of what we do as ministers of all different traditions,” as she described the role of clergy visits.
The lawsuit alleged that the Whipple building, named for Minnesota’s first Episcopal bishop and a 19th-century advocate for human rights, “now stands in stark contrast to its namesake’s legacy.” The complaint said the facility had “become the epicenter of systematic deprivation of fundamental constitutional and legal rights by the federal government.”
Government attorneys argued the issue was effectively moot, noting that Operation Metro Surge ended on Feb. 12 and that new detentions had subsided. They also said restrictions had been eased and that clergy visits had been allowed for more than two weeks, according to the proceedings.
Blackwell agreed with the plaintiffs that the case should proceed despite changes in conditions, saying the matter was not moot because the government still lacked a formal access plan setting out who decides the terms under which clergy are admitted. The injunction therefore looks to establish a structured process rather than leave access decisions to case-by-case discretion.
The courtroom included support from a range of faith leaders, including Catholic and Episcopal bishops in Minnesota as well as other Christian and Jewish clergy, and it included clergy from several denominations. In addition, the filing described difficulties that clergy around the country have faced in seeking access to detention facilities, particularly during Lent and Ramadan, which are periods when faith leaders often attempt to provide in-custody ministry.
AP reports that similar legal efforts have recently played out in other states. The filing cited a lawsuit involving two Catholic priests and a nun that gained entry into an ICE facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview on Ash Wednesday last month, and it also referenced struggles by Muslim and Christian clergy in Texas to gain access to large ICE detention facilities. It also reported that Tauria Rich, a senior local ICE official overseeing Whipple, said clergy requests at the site are handled case by case, and that one early-March request had ended because no detainees were present.
ICE has described the Whipple building as a short-term holding facility rather than a long-term detention center where clergy visits are typically permitted. The reporting also said that more than just clergy have faced access hurdles: three members of Congress from Minnesota were turned away when they tried to inspect the facility, and after they gained entry they reported poor conditions.
The injunction arrives amid other legal disputes over access to legal services at the same facility. AP reports that a different federal judge ordered Homeland Security last month to give new detainees at Whipple immediate access to counsel before they’re taken elsewhere, and that judge later held a hearing on whether to make the order more permanent; that ruling was pending at the time of the injunction described here.