Two Oregon immigrant rights advocacy groups sued three federal immigration agencies on Thursday alleging they are purposefully denying people in detention centers access to their lawyers before transferring them out of state.
The suit was brought against the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the ICE field office in Seattle, as well as the leaders of each agency, by CLEAR Clinic, a Portland-based legal nonprofit that provides free immigration counsel, and Woodburn-based Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste — also known as PCUN, Oregon’s largest Latino labor union. The groups are represented by Innovation Law Lab, a Portland-based legal nonprofit that specializes in immigrant and refugee cases.
Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, Cammilla Wamsley, director of ICE’s Seattle field office, and Pete Flores, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are named in the suit.
PCUN and the CLEAR Clinic argue that detained noncitizens are being denied their right to legal counsel under the Fifth and First Amendments — which guarantee the right to due process and the right to hire, consult, and communicate with an attorney — as well as rights to counsel enshrined in the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act and in ICE’s own detention standards.
The lawsuit highlights President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign promise to launch “the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.” Upon taking office in January 2025, the Trump administration ordered ICE field offices to meet a quota of 75 arrests per day.
“The administration began systematically dismantling internal accountability mechanisms and restraints on immigration agents’ and officers’ conduct,” the lawsuit reads, adding that immigration enforcement agencies began rescinding long-standing guidance restricting operations in schools, hospitals, places of worship and public demonstrations.
In July, ICE agents took a father who was dropping his child off at a Beaverton preschool, and on Monday, ICE officers posted outside a Wilsonville middle school were asked to leave by school staff.
“Masked agents are snatching people from our communities and denying Oregonians their fundamental rights,” said Reyna Lopez, executive director at PCUN, in a statement. “We are suing today because our members are getting arrested and swept up by masked ICE agents in unmarked vehicles. All of the people detained still have due process rights and should be allowed to exercise them.”
Innovation Law Lab Legal Director Jordan Cunning said the groups bringing the suit are asking immigration agencies to follow the law.
“Federal agents are targeting schools, workplaces, and homes and spreading fear across Oregon,” Cunnings said in a statement. “They are blocking attorneys from meeting with detained Oregonians, showing complete disregard for the rule of law and due process.”
