Settlement reached in lawsuit claiming Carver County Sheriff's Office unlawfully held man for ICE

Carver County has settled with a man who a lawsuit claimed was unlawfully detained by local law enforcement for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his bail was paid. That's according to court documents, including a settlement filed June 26.

As of Monday, details of the settlement have not been made public.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and John Sear, an attorney with the law firm Nelson Mullins, filed the lawsuit in March 2025 on behalf of Maikol Javier Suarez Varela.

According to the complaint, Suarez Varela was arrested in Chanhassen, Minnesota, in January 2025 and taken to the Carver County jail. The complaint said Sheriff Jason Kamerud "or others" working at the jail alerted ICE to his presence at the facility.

ICE then sent the sheriff's office a detainer request, asking it to hold Suarez Varela "up to 48 hours after he would otherwise be released," court documents said.

The ACLU said the Minnesota Freedom Fund posted Suarez Varela's $10,000 bail, but the jail didn't let him go. The lawsuit argued that holding an individual under an ICE detainer is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Ian Bratlie, an attorney with the ACLU, said Suarez Varela entered the U.S. lawfully.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, an ICE spokesperson said Suarez Varela was "paroled into the United States" through a port of entry in Texas.

Suarez Varela is not in ICE custody, according to the federal agency's online detainee database.