ICE falsely accuses attorney of aiding client's escape
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An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has falsely accused a Twin Cities attorney of aiding and abetting the escape of a client who’s charged with reentering the United States illegally.
Matthew Deates, a federal public defender, is demanding that ICE retract a memorandum that names him and correct the record. Federal prosecutors included the document in a tranche of evidence they sent in August to defense attorneys who represent 15 anti-ICE activists charged with conspiracy.
Deates does not represent any of the Minnesota 15 defendants and has no connection to the case. It’s unclear why the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office included the memo from deportation officer Michael J. O’Neal with the discovery materials.
The memo O’Neal sent on April 29 to ICE Assistant Field Office Director Corey McMahon included the subject line “Aid and Abetting.” It concerns Ezequiel De Jesus Portillo Rodriguez, a Salvadoran man deported from the United States in 2017 and indicted in Minnesota last year on a count of felony reentry.
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ICE arrested Portillo Rodriguez in California in August 2025 and kept him in custody for more than six months until a federal judge in Sacramento ordered him freed and barred ICE from re-detaining him. A court placed Portillo Rodriguez on pretrial supervision and allowed him to travel to Minneapolis for his April 28 initial appearance on the felony charge.
Deates appeared in court that afternoon alongside Portillo Rodriguez, who entered a not guilty plea. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Schultz released Portillo Rodriguez without objection from the prosecution and allowed him to return to California.
In an Oct. 1 court filing, Deates writes that he helped his client find lunch and then walked with him a block from the Minneapolis federal courthouse to the Government Plaza light rail station so Portillo Rodriguez could start his return trip to California.
Until he learned of the ICE memo, Deates writes he was unaware O’Neal and two U.S. marshals had followed him and Portillo Rodriguez out of the courthouse as part of an apparent effort to “conduct a unilateral administrative arrest” in violation of court orders.
In his demand that the government expunge O’Neal’s “reputation-damaging” memo, Deates’ attorney Chris Madel writes ICE exposed Deates “to public suspicion of a federal felony.” Madel wants a judge to order prosecutors to notify anyone who received the memo of the error.
“The United States Constitution does not permit the government to circulate a false, stigmatizing accusation of criminal conduct against a person — particularly an officer of this Court — without any opportunity for that person to be heard,” Madel writes, adding that Deates’ “excellent professional standing depends on the trust of this Court, opposing counsel, and his clients.”
Madel asked the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office to correct the record in a Sept. 4 letter. But in their Sept. 25 response, U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tory Sailer write that O’Neal’s memo was not relevant to the Minnesota 15 conspiracy case and “does not reflect the position of the United States Attorney’s Office.”
The prosecutors do not, as Deates demands, acknowledge that the allegations in O’Neal’s memo are false.
Madel also notes that O’Neal’s memo misidentifies the judge who presided over the hearing and is “riddled with false statements,” including that Portillo Rodriguez “did not make his appointment” at Deates’ office.
MPR News requested comment from the U.S. Marshals Service in Minnesota as well as the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In an email to MPR News on Tuesday, an ICE spokesperson writes the agency “remains committed to upholding the law and conducting all operations with integrity. Obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime.” ICE says it cannot comment further because the case is under “active litigation.”
ICE did not respond to a follow-up question from MPR News about whether the agency continues to allege that Deates committed a crime.
Court records show Portillo Rodriguez, who has a final order of removal, failed to appear for a July 30 hearing where he had been expected to change his plea to guilty and face sentencing. It’s unclear whether ICE deported him or if the agency is holding him in immigration detention.
On Sept. 15, ICE removed detainees with final removal orders from its online locator system, making it difficult for attorneys and family members to find them.
