Federal judge dismisses Portland nonprofit’s case alleging ICE blocks access to lawyers

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a Portland-based immigration law firm seeking to ensure federal agents allow detained immigrants access to legal counsel. 

The decision comes nearly one year after the CLEAR Clinic first filed the lawsuit alongside Pineros y Campesinos del Noroeste, Oregon’s largest Latino labor union also known as PCUN, and Leon X, an anonymous 32-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipient from Mexico. 

In her Thursday ruling, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken approved the groups’ request to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning they could file a similar lawsuit. 

The ruling follows Aiken’s September decision denying a preliminary injunction, or an order that would have prevented federal agents from denying legal counsel to detained immigrants while the case proceeded. Aiken found that the plaintiffs didn’t provide enough evidence to back their claims that agents were purposefully denying people in detention access to counsel before transferring them out of state.

It’s a blow for immigrant rights advocates, who filed the lawsuit in the wake of Operation Black Rose, an operation the federal government launched in October 2025 to arrest immigrants living across the Willamette Valley. The effort resulted in more than 1,200 immigration arrests in the last three months of 2025, reflecting the impact of President Donald Trump’s directive requiring the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to raise its daily arrest quotas from 1,000 to 3,000. 

To achieve its goal, the Trump administration denied people in detention access to counsel or cut them short after only a few minutes of contacting legal help, the plaintiffs alleged, adding that ICE agents pressured people to waive their rights and sign voluntary departure orders. 

Aiken in her September ruling also determined that PCUN and Leon X lacked standing in the lawsuit.

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PCUN, which was suing on behalf of its members, didn’t name a single member in the suit that had been denied access to counsel after their immigration detention. Aiken called this “fatal” to having standing. Meanwhile, she said Leon X’s fear of being detained is reasonable, but it’s not different from how any other immigrant across the country may feel right now. 

Although the lawsuit didn’t result in the relief immigration advocates sought, it resulted in extensive evidence proving federal immigration’s interference with Oregonians’ access to counsel, said Jordan Cunnings, the legal director at Innovation Law Lab, which represented the plaintiffs.

“Documenting ICE’s disregard for the fundamental right to an attorney is a win that we can build on,” she said in a blog post. 

The federal government did not immediately respond to the Capital Chronicle’s request for comment.