Trump judge slams DHS for blocking detainees' access to lawyers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: msn/Axios

11h


A Trump-appointed federal judge said immigration enforcement agencies "violated noncitizen detainees' constitutional" rights at a Minnesota facility in a scathing ruling on Thursday.

Why it matters: U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel's ruling that "policies and practices" at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building "all but extinguish a detainee's access to counsel" marked the 45th time that a judge nominated by President Trump had ruled against his mass detention agenda, per a Politico review.

Driving the news: Brasel in the emergency restraining order ruled ICE must give detained immigrants access to attorneys as soon as they've been taken into custody.

The order that will remain in effect through Feb. 26 comes after a class-action lawsuit was filed last month against defendants including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The suit alleges that people were being detained without access to lawyers and denied confidential communication — a claim DHS rejected in a Thursday evening email following the ruling.

Zoom in: However, Brasel wrote in the ruling that the government had put in place "obstacles" at Whipple that marked "an unconstitutional infringement" of noncitizens' rights to access counsel.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/trump-judge-slams-dhs-for-blocking-detainees-access-to-lawyers/ar-AA1WfMuQ

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Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Dist.Minn_._0-26-cv-00749_95.pdf

Link to The Advocates for Human Rights PRESS RELEASE - Federal Court Orders DHS to Restore Attorney Access at Minnesota Detention Facilities

BREAKING: We won a court order requiring DHS to immediately restore meaningful access to lawyers for people detained at immigration detention centers in Minneapolis.

Access to a lawyer is not optional; it is a fundamental right. We will keep fighting to defend it.

— Democracy Forward (@democracyforward.org) 2026-02-12T23:36:32.276666Z

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1. Not really a "Trump" judge. She was recommended for the position by Amy Klobuchar.

While Judge Brasel is a Trump judge in that she was nominated by Trump, her background is wildly different from most, if not all, of his nominees. She began her career as clerk for a senior eighth circuit judge who had originally been appointed by LBJ. She later was named to a judgeship on the Minnesota state courts by then-governor Mark Dayton, a Democrat. Her elevation to the federal courts was arranged by Amy Klobuchar as part of a deal where Trump would nominate Brasel along with Eric Tostrud, a Federalist Society disciple who had clerked for republican judges and was recommended for a judgeship by Republican house member Erik Paulsen.

Brasel may be best known for upholding a state court ruling that ballots received seven days after the 2020 election must be counted.

Mostly, what distinguishes her from being a true "Trump judge" is that, unlike most if not all of Trump's nominees, she actually has the skills, knowledge, and experience to be a federal court judge, having been rated "unanimously well qualified" by the ABA.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Remember the "Blue Slip"

that she could have wielded if that "deal" hadn't been consummated. As we also know, she is not running for reelection.

[onenote]

3. This happened in 2018.

It filled a position that had been vacant since 2016.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Yes and Turtle made sure to ram as many through as he could back then.

Biden was able to get the same number confirmed +1 more, during his own term.

Alternately, very few of 45's judicial requests have been approved so far during this 2nd term (but then he had less vacancies too).

But that doesn't discount the use of the "Blue Slip" by Senators when it comes to judicial nominees from that Senator's state.

Klobuchar has always been deeply chummy, both legislatively and socially, with the "other side".