Court Cases

The ACLU of Minnesota and pro bono co-counsel Maslon LLP will serve Freeborn County on behalf of four Freeborn County residents whose property taxes are being used to fund an illegal agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In March 2025, the Freeborn County sheriff unilaterally entered into an illegal 287(g) agreement with ICE. A crucial feature of the 287(g) program is that the agreements can only be applied consistent with state and local laws, including the Minnesota Constitution. In Minnesota, it is illegal to hold individuals for ICE after they have been released from state custody. Minnesota also does not authorize state or local law enforcement to conduct civil immigration arrests. However, there have been multiple reports of this happening across the state. Under 287(g) agreements, it is the county and its taxpayers – not ICE – who are legally and economically liable for the inevitable lawsuits that follow. Countless lawsuits have put county taxpayers on the hook to pay hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in liability when their sheriffs have unlawfully arrested and detained people at ICE’s request. The four plaintiffs in this case – Leslie Kaup, Jeremy Corey-Gruenes, Jim Margadant, and Daphne Hamborg – are taxpayers in Freeborn County, and they are suing to challenge the unlawful expenditures of their tax money.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit in district court on behalf of Maikol Javier Suarez Verela, who was illegally detained by the Carver County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office acted outside their clearly defined statutory authority and the bounds of the Minnesota Constitution by holding Suarez Verela for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after he paid bail. Suarez Verela’s bail was paid by the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) on February 13. As soon as bail was paid, the Carver County Sheriff’s Office had no legal basis to continue to detain him—but they did so anyway. Instead of releasing Suarez Verela, the sheriff’s office illegally held him based on a request (not a judicial warrant) from ICE and then transferred him to federal custody. Carver County staff and Sheriff Kamerud know that Minnesota law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from holding people for ICE.

The ACLU of Minnesota, Ciresi Conlin, Forsgren Fisher, and Riach Law filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement on behalf of six community members whose constitutional rights were violated by ICE and other federal agents. In recent months, the Trump Administration has increased its deployment of federal forces to cities across the U.S. to supposedly deter crime and enforce immigration laws. However, federal agents have instead engaged in a series of indiscriminate immigration raids in which masked federal officers in militarized gear brandish rifles and abduct community members from local businesses, streets, and homes. In response to these unlawful attacks on their neighbors, community members showed up to observe and protest. In a blatant effort to interfere with people’s exercise of free speech and the right to peaceably assemble and express disagreement with the government, federal agents countered with harassment, intimidation, force, and detention. In Minnesota, ICE and other federal agents have followed peaceful protestors to their homes, used chemical irritants and rubber bullets on them, and have even arrested people for standing on the public sidewalk and observing them. This lawsuit asks the court – on behalf of these ordinary people who have come together courageously to stand up for the rights of all Americans – to halt ICE’s attack on First and Fourth Amendment rights.  

The ACLU of Minnesota filed an amicus brief today asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to suppress evidence that was found when police frisked four boys because of an officer's hunch about "proximity."

The ACLU of Minnesota, U of M’s Law School Clemency Clinic, and Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners today filed a complaint to stop the Minnesota Department of Corrections from reimprisoning people who were released during the pandemic due to their high medical risk.