QuickTake:

Local attorneys in June expressed concerns about a lack of access to clients at the downtown Eugene federal building that houses a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Data has shown a sharp increase in Eugene ICE detentions. A judge said she hopes to rule by Monday on a case involving attorney access.

Legal advocates made their case Friday, Oct. 24, to a federal judge on why attorneys must be allowed inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Eugene and in similar ICE outposts throughout the state.

Senior U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken on Friday said she hoped to issue a ruling by Monday “at the latest” in response to a filing by advocates seeking a temporary restraining order that could slow the transport of detainees.

The motion also asks for an order requiring ICE to allow “constitutionally sufficient access to prospective or retained counsel” for detainees in Oregon.

ICE officials say they have no policy barring attorneys from their offices, but that priorities relating to security and processing needs, along with the temporary nature of immigration detention in Oregon, can prompt denials to attorneys seeking to meet with clients.

But attorneys filing the case told Aiken that basic rights are at stake.

“Access to counsel is not an operational inconvenience,” Tess Hellgren, director of legal advocacy for the Portland-based Innovation Law Lab, said during oral arguments over telephone. “It is a constitutional right, and without it, the individuals detained in these circumstances can suffer dire consequences with lasting impacts on their life and their liberty.”

Beginning this year, data has shown a sharp increase in ICE detentions of people arriving for administrative check-in appointments at the downtown federal building in Eugene, which houses an ICE office.

A lawsuit filed Oct. 16 in U.S. District Court in Eugene asks a judge to force those in ICE detention in Oregon to be held for three business days. The documents filed in the case allege the current detention process leaves detainees without any access to attorneys before they are transported out of state.

Michael Velchik, an attorney with the federal Department of Justice, on Friday said the government “forcefully objects” to any injunction requiring ICE detainees to stay in Oregon for at least three days.

“That is the most important thing that I can communicate to the court this morning,” Velchik said.

Aiken, in response, said, “We don’t need to argue about the three days. Let’s move on.” Velchik said that’s “welcome news.”

In her arguments, Hellgren cited a written declaration by Katrina Kilgren, a Eugene-based immigration attorney.

Kilgren stated: “In my experience, when people have access to attorneys, it has resulted in many of them being released from ICE custody. For others not released, they were at least able to understand their legal posture and make informed decisions on how to move forward with their case, instead of being forced to accept or sign documents they do not understand.”

Many of Hellgren’s arguments centered on what would amount to meaningful access to counsel, while Velchik objected on practical grounds.

“Some of the requests that they’re making for access might be logistically impossible,” Velchik said, noting that an argument put forward for at least a one-hour consultation may not be practical given how there could just be one meeting room available at an ICE office.

Velchik also contrasted attorneys with an existing client relationship to someone being detained and “third parties and perhaps plaintiff’s organizations wanting the right to go into these facilities for people who they do not yet represent.”