ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Clergy will be allowed to minister to immigrants in a holding facility at the headquarters of the Trump administration's enforcement surge in Minnesota, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell granted an injunction requested by Minnesota branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and a Catholic priest who had sued the Department of Homeland Security.
Under his ruling, clergy will be allowed in-person pastoral visits to all detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, the site of frequent protests over roughly the 3,000 federal officers who had surged into the state at the height of the crackdown.
Blackwell said the plaintiffs had met their burden of proving that they’re likely to succeed when the case reaches a final conclusion, and that restrictions on the religious freedom of clergy to minister to detainees constitutes “irreparable harm.”
He ordered both sides to meet within four business days to try to agree on details for how to provide access that takes into account the government’s legitimate security concerns, and then submit a plan within seven business days, or competing proposals if they can’t agree.
Bishop Jennifer Nagel, of the Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was turned away from Whipple when she tried to go to visit with detainees on Ash Wednesday. She told reporters after the hearing that serving people in crisis is fundamental in many religions.
“The trauma that families are going through, and individuals are going through, at these times is exorbitant. And so to be able to meet people in those needs, that’s very much at the core, the heart and soul of what we do as ministers of all different traditions,” Nagel said.
The lawsuit alleges the Whipple building, named for Minnesota’s first Episcopal bishop, a 19th-century advocate for human rights, “now stands in stark contrast to its namesake’s legacy.” It says the building has “become the epicenter of systematic deprivation of fundamental constitutional and legal rights by the federal government.”
Government attorneys noted that Operation Metro Surge officially ended on Feb. 12. They also said the number of new detentions has since subsided, so temporary restrictions on visitors have been eased, and clergy visits have been allowed for over two weeks.
But Blackwell agreed with attorneys for the plaintiffs who argued that the issue isn't moot, because the government still doesn't have a formal plan requiring access that sets out who decides the conditions under which clergy are admitted.
Catholic and Episcopal bishops in Minnesota, other Christian and Jewish clergy, and the Minnesota Council of Churches also formally supported the request. The courtroom was filled with Lutheran, United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Jewish and other clergy.
Clergy across the country have been pushing for more access to immigration detention facilities, especially during the holy seasons of Lent and Ramadan. It’s a longstanding practice for faith leaders to minister to detainees. but it has become far more contentious amid the current immigration crackdown.
It took a similar lawsuit for two Catholic priests and a nun to gain entry into an ICE facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview on Ash Wednesday last month. And Muslim and Christian clergy in Texas have struggled to get into large Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities there.
Tauria Rich, a senior local ICE official who oversees Whipple, said in a filing this week that visitors to Whipple are rare, and that any clergy requests are handled on a case-by-case basis. She said one clergy member had attempted to visit in early March, but left because no detainees were present. The visit would have been allowed if any detainees had been there, she said.
ICE calls the building a short-term holding facility, and not the kind of long-term detention center where clergy visits are normally allowed.
It’s not just clergy who’ve struggled to get in. Three members of Congress from Minnesota were turned away when they tried to inspect the facility. Once they did get in, they reported poor conditions.
Access has also been an issue for attorneys. Homeland Security was ordered by a different federal judge last month to give new detainees at Whipple immediate access to counsel before they're taken elsewhere. That judge held a hearing this week to consider whether to convert her temporary order into a more permanent injunction. Her ruling is pending.
Bishop Jennifer Nagel, of the Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speaks to reporters outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday, March 20, 2026, after a federal judge ruled that clergy will be allowed to minister to immigrants in a holding facility at the headquarters of the Trump administration's enforcement surge in Minnesota. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
FILE - Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
“The Track Too Tough To Tame” somehow is expected to get even tougher this weekend, and that’s just fine with NASCAR drivers who have lobbied for bigger challenges.
It’s also probably fine with NASCAR executives, who have a crowd-pleasing feud brewing in the Cup Series circuit at Darlington Raceway, the egg-shaped oval in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina that has given top drivers fits for 76 years.
Anger and frustration often flare at the tricky 1.366-mile track, and all eyes will be on how Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez race each other Sunday. The former teammates at Trackhouse Racing had a brief but animated confrontation after their cars made contact last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and they’ve continued taking swipes at each other this week.
Suarez accused Chastain of being two-faced and later told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that “if I want to fight Ross, and he knows this, it’s not going to last 5 seconds.” Chastain said he regretted sideswiping Suarez’s car before lightly shoving him in the pits, but added “I don’t agree with the way he handles things. What made me so mad was just that there was no accountability.”
With the ill will festering, conditions at Darlington will be ripe for prolonging that rivalry and possibly igniting other fresh squabbles.
A 12% increase in horsepower and a 25% decrease in downforce (the physics that keep cars glued to the track at a high rate of speed) are expected to cause excessive tire wear on an already abrasive surface that’s infamous for chewing up rubber.
Lap times are expected to drop by 4 to 5 seconds over the course of a run — a second more than traditional falloff — as drivers wrestle with tires punished by heavier acceleration from 750 horsepower, heat from higher braking loads and power slides from the lack of traction. A forecast in the high 80s also will make the asphalt slippery.
“It’s going to be crazy,” Suarez said. “Honestly, I’m actually looking forward to it. I’m super excited for the challenge.”
Indeed, many drivers relish the idea of being out of control for 400 laps because they believe the difficult conditions separate the field and provide the most talented with a better chance to shine by managing their tires.
Chase Briscoe, who has won two of the past three races at Darlington, said he was “crashing every corner of every lap” recently testing the track on Toyota’s driving simulator.
"It’s going to be the hardest track we run on all year long,” said Briscoe, who has won two of the past three races at Darlington. “The whole weekend is going to be must-see because of how drastically different this thing drives.”
On what NASCAR is hailing as “Alumni Weekend,” several dozen former Cup drivers are expected to be on hand at the historic track Sunday for a race that fittingly will be old school.
It’s so much of a throwback that concerns have been raised about its unknowns.
NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer John Probst said teams have asked for extra tires (beyond an allotted 10 sets) and permission to enhance brake cooling.
Probst said NASCAR declined to grant their requests because unpredictability usually means better racing — presuming the entire field doesn’t exhaust its tire supply or suffer systemic brake failures.
“This isn’t just a regular event where everything is known, and everyone’s comfortable,” Probst said. “That uncertainty is usually the recipe for a very compelling race. If you’re a team, you want to minimize the opportunities to make a wrong decision. We feel when there are opportunities to make bad decisions, it improves the entertainment of our events.
“But there is a slippery slope that if we err too much on the side of not enough tires or brake cooling, then you kind of ruin the sporting side of the event. So we’re trying to thread the needle between the entertainment and sporting side.”
Probst said NASCAR is confident the curveballs won’t be too big to handle at Darlington.
“We have the best drivers and engineers in the world, and they want to show their skills,” Probst said. “Anytime that we can put decisions that have profound effects on the outcome in the hands of our teams, that’s when we see our best racing. This is what our fans have been asking for, and we hear them loud and clear.”
Carson Hocevar will be sporting a blue and yellow paint scheme on his No. 77 Chevrolet to honor seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt’s early 1980s livery. The Spire Motorsports upstart has drawn comparisons to Earnhardt because of his aggressive driving style, but Hocevar wants to dispel the notion that he is the imitator of “The Intimidator.”
“I mean, I think I’ve hit enough people already,” said Hocevar, who bought a 1997 Chevy pickup truck last year that is modeled after Earnhardt’s famous No. 3. “I’m just driving how I want to drive. I don’t really love the comparisons of what they turn into. It started by just not apologizing after running into people to turning into kind of ‘I’m as good as him.’ I don’t know where that came from. I’m just hoping I’m fast enough that we can actually be up front and be relevant, especially with that scheme.”
Denny Hamlin (+550) is favored by Bet MGM Sportsbook, followed by Kyle Larson (+600), William Byron (+700), Briscoe (+700) and Tyler Reddick (+700). … Hamlin has the best average finish (7.9) in history at Darlington, where he leads active drivers with five wins. … The last four 400-mile races in the spring at Darlington have featured a lead change in the final 10 laps.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Daniel Suarez (7) signs an autograph for a fan before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)
