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Chaska, MN — March 6, 2025
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota (ACLU‑MN) filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Carver County, Sheriff Jason Kamerud, and other county officials, alleging that the Carver County Sheriff’s Office illegally detained a man on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after he had legally posted bail. The suit, filed in Carver County District Court, asserts that the detention violated both Minnesota law and the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit was filed on March 5, 2025 on behalf of Maikol Javier Suarez Verela, who was arrested on local charges in Chanhassen, MN in January and held in the Carver County jail. According to court filings, Suarez Verela’s bail was posted on February 13 by the Minnesota Freedom Fund — but instead of being released, he was held longer because of a request from ICE, known as a detainer.
“This case is about the fundamental right to be protected from unreasonable seizure,” said **ACLU‑MN Executive Director Deepinder Mayell. “That right is one of the bedrocks of the Bill of Rights and our democracy.”
The complaint alleges that once bail was paid, the Carver County Sheriff’s Office had no legal basis under state law to continue to detain Suarez Verela, but did so anyway — holding him for ICE custody rather than releasing him. ICE later took Suarez Verela into federal custody, where he remains pending immigration proceedings.
ACLU‑MN Staff Attorney Ian Bratlie said that Minnesota law is clear: local law enforcement does not have authority to detain individuals for civil immigration purposes based on detainer requests alone. He noted that detainers are administrative requests and not judicial warrants, and argued that honoring them amounts to unlawful detention.
The lawsuit further notes that Minnesota county jails have been repeatedly warned — including in letters sent by ACLU‑MN in 2014, 2017, and February 2025 — that ICE detainers are not legally enforceable and that honoring them can expose counties to liability.
Legal precedent in Minnesota supports this position: in 2017, a federal court held in Orellana v. Nobles County that complying with ICE detainers violated the Fourth Amendment, and in 2019, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that sheriffs had no statutory authority to arrest or detain individuals based on ICE detainers alone.
In the new lawsuit, Suarez Verela’s complaint seeks a judgment declaring that his detention by Carver County was unlawful, and also requests monetary damages for his illegal detention and related constitutional violations.
Carver County officials had no immediate comment on the filing as of this writing.