A federal judge in St. Paul on Friday ordered the Department of Homeland Security to develop a plan to ensure that clergy are able to visit immigration detainees at the Whipple Federal Building. Judge Jerry Blackwell’s decision comes amid a lawsuit that a group of Minnesota religious leaders filed in February.
The plaintiffs include the United Church of Christ Minnesota Conference, the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Rev. Christopher Collins, a pastor at St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic Church in St. Paul.
The clergy members allege that the Department of Homeland Security is violating their First Amendment right to practice their religion by blocking them from ministering to detainees in person.
Blackwell granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction. He ordered DHS to remove any blanket prohibition on clergy visits to the Whipple building and implement a “workable process for allowing access” that balances the government’s reasonable need to keep the building secure.
“There’s a concern that the clergy access is ad hoc, that it’s arbitrary,“ Blackwell said. “And you’ve seen the Wizard of Oz. The wizard opens a little window and decides whether you’re allowed in or not. Getting access to Whipple feels like that, completely arbitrary. We don’t know what standards are applied, and it’s left up to the subjective determinations of whoever. How is that the best that the government can do?”
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Fuller argued the issue is moot because Operation Metro Surge is over and DHS is no longer holding large numbers of detainees at Whipple.
Fuller added that the clergy members failed to show concrete individualized harm. He noted that no clergy members have visited Whipple over the past few weeks, and one who did on March 6 was not turned away.
But Erin Westbrook, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, countered that the point of their lawsuit is to establish a clear policy, and the government has failed to do that.
After the hearing, ELCA Bishop Jen Nagel said that she tried to visit detainees on Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent, but Whipple guards turned her away.
Even though DHS is allowing clergy inside at the moment, Nagel said that she’s afraid the agency could change course without warning.
“We know that for years and years, most likely the Whipple Building will continue to be used as a federal detention center,” Nagel said. “So we want a system and a place that it’s not a willy-nilly kind of a thing. We want a place that we know that these folks can get what they need and we can be able to offer that.”
“There must be a uniform, reasoned, and thoughtful approach that recognizes the humanity of everybody and their undeniable constitutional rights,” added plaintiffs’ attorney Irina Vaynerman with the nonprofit Groundwork Legal.
Blackwell gave the lawyers for the clergy and the government a week to come up with a written plan to ensure that clergy may visit people who are detained at the Whipple Building.