A 2-year-old girl and her father were shipped from Minnesota to Texas within hours of being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite a judge’s order to release the child, court filings show.
The girl and her father, Elvis Joel Tipan Echeverria, both Ecuadorian nationals, were arrested in south Minneapolis around 1 p.m. Thursday, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. Officials said the father and daughter’s detention happened in the course of a “targeted enforcement operation” and that they were removed from a parked car.
DHS said Tipan Echeverria illegally reentered the country after a prior removal. The spokesperson added that agents attempted to hand the girl over to her mother nearby, “but she refused.”
The family’s attorney, Kira Kelley, represented the mother’s recollection of events and wrote that Tipan Echeverria and his daughter were on the way back from the store and that ICE agents broke the windows of their car after it had pulled into the driveway. Tipan Echeverria allegedly tried to bring his daughter to her mother, but the agents refused.
The mother and other family members stayed inside the home, “terrified” of the immigration agents outside, an affidavit states.
Kelley claims the agents did not present a warrant and added that both clients have active asylum claims and neither has a final order of removal.
A race against the clock
Court filings break down the timeline from the time Tipan Echeverria and his daughter were arrested to their removal to Texas.
Kelley filed an emergency petition asking for Tipan Echeverria and his daughter’s release around 5:37 p.m. Thursday, less than five hours after they were taken into ICE custody, the affidavit states. About 40 minutes later, she filed a motion asking a judge to stop the transfer of Tipan Echeverria outside Minnesota and to order the release of the child.
Over the next several hours, Kelley placed numerous calls to ICE counsel to bring their attention to the filings, but said she did not receive a response.
At 8:11 p.m. on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kathy Menendez enjoined ICE from removing the father and child from Minnesota. She also issued an order to release the child to the family’s attorney no later than 9:30 p.m., citing “irreparable harm” of keeping her in custody, the affidavit states.
ICE informed the court after the fact that Tipan Echeverria and his daughter had been placed on a commercial flight to Texas at 8:30 p.m.
A government attorney later said ICE would honor the court’s ruling and return the girl to Minnesota on Friday. As of this report, it was unclear whether ICE had followed through.
On Friday, Kelley filed a motion asking Menendez to block all movement of ICE detainees outside of Minnesota, arguing the agency swiftly removes people from the state to prevent them from being under local court jurisdiction.
“The only way to cure the intentionally bad-faith conduct by Respondents is for the Court to use its inherent power to order Respondents to immediately stop inter-state transfer of individuals who are detained in Minnesota,” Kelley’s motion states.
Kelley confirmed late Friday night that the 2-year-old has been returned to Minnesota and is safe with her mother. She said Tipan Echeverria is now in custody in Minnesota.
“It’s not unusual for the federal government to move people that they’re trying to remove from the country to jurisdictions that are more friendly to their position on the law,” said Virgil Wiebe, a University of St. Thomas School of Law professor. “This is not a new thing, it’s just an old thing on steroids.”
He explained attorneys are filing habeas petitions to require the government to show good reason for why someone is detained.
“Is the petition filed quickly enough before someone is moved out of state?” said Wiebe. “The government is going to argue that jurisdiction for habeas petitions is where the person is.”
Marc Prokosch, the attorney for a 5-year-old and his father, who were detained in Columbia Heights this week, said relocating detainees creates challenges for lawyers representing detainees.
“It makes it a lot harder for lawyers to file habeas petitions in Texas when we’re up here in Minnesota,” said Prokosch, who said it’s also more difficult to communicate with clients. “When they’re detained, I’m at the whim of the detention facility’s controls of when, and how, and how long I can talk to them.”
A DHS official provided the following statement in response:
“Claims that transfers of detainees are being “weaponized” are categorically false. Once an alien is transferred to ICE custody, the agency makes a custody determination based on bed space and ensures their presence for immigration proceedings or removal from the United States. Despite a historic number of injunctions, DHS is working rapidly overtime to remove these aliens from detentions centers to their final destination—home.
“The facts are illegal aliens in detention have access to phones they can use to contact their families and lawyers. Additionally, ICE gives all illegal aliens arrested a court-approved list of free or low-cost attorneys. All detainees receive full due process. The appropriate process due to an illegal alien with final deportation orders is removal, plain and simple. That said, DHS has a stringent law enforcement assessment in place that abides by due process under the U.S. Constitution.
“ICE is targeting the worst of the worst including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members and more. 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S. Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities.”
A GoFundMe has been started to assist the family of the 2-year-old girl and her father.