Judge orders ICE to keep Hopkins family in Minnesota
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A judge has issued an order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from transporting a Hopkins family out of Minnesota. The order was issued Thursday hours after the family of four, including two children, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Maria Velasco Hurtado was on her way to work early Thursday morning when the vehicle she was in was stopped by ICE officers. According to attorney Brian Clark, Velasco Hurtado tried to show the officers her “papers.”
Instead, the officers took her to her home in Hopkins and offered the family inside the house an ultimatum: “Either come outside immediately, and be detained if you want to see your mother anytime soon, or stay in that house, in safety, and have their mother taken away, and flown out of the state away from them," he said.
Maria, her husband Luis Chulca Chiluisa and their children Jeremy and Victor are now in ICE custody. Clark said the family members are documented asylum seekers from Ecuador and well-known members of their Hopkins community. Their children are in first and seventh grades in area schools.
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Clark said Maria and Luis have filed U-Visa applications with Hennepin County. The visas allow immigrants who have been victims of certain crimes and who cooperate with law enforcement temporary status, work authorization and a path towards a green card.
“They are Minnesota neighbors, and they've been good neighbors, and they are neighbors who help get their neighbors cars out of the snow,” said Clark, referring to a snowy night last November, when Luis helped members of the Hopkins Police Department free several cars stuck in the snow. “They're well loved in their school and their broader community.”
In 2024 Chulca Chiluisa was convicted of a DWI. It’s an offense, said Clark, that doesn’t make him ineligible for asylum status nor does it disqualify his U-Visa application.
A DHS website lists Velasco Hurtado as being “convicted of theft.” However, neither MPR News nor Clark could find any criminal record associated with Velasco Hurtado in Minnesota. Clark said his firm also couldn’t locate any theft charge or conviction anywhere, including Ecuador.
“We have conducted a diligent investigation and found no record of a criminal conviction for Ms. Velasco Hurtado in Minnesota or in Ecuador,” said Clark. “Our firm has also been in contact with Maria’s sisters in Ecuador and they confirm Maria is a hard-working mother who has never been charged with or convicted of theft or any other crime.”
Clark said he doesn’t know where the family is being held and that he’s been denied access to meet with them. A judge’s order issued not long after they were detained blocks the Department of Homeland Security from transporting the Velascos out of the state.
DHS attorneys have yet to file responses to the petition.
The judge has ordered ICE to bring the family back to Minnesota if they have already been removed. Clark said he doesn’t know where the family is.
— Brandt Williams, MPR News
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