Federal judge orders ICE agents in Colorado to follow law, stop ‘pattern’ of illegal arrests

A federal judge in Denver detected Tuesday that federal immigration bureaucrats have routinely carried out illegal arrests in Colorado and ordered them to to better document detentions so their legality can be monitored The -page decision from U S District Court Judge R Brooke Jackson came three weeks after four immigrants testified that U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had arrested them without warrants and without first checking to see whether they were likely to flee court proceedings a check that s required by law Jackson ordered Tuesday that ICE remove the ankle monitors on those four people one of whom is a Univerity of Utah apprentice arrested in Mesa County in June and refund the bail that each paid to leave detention earlier this year Jackson ordered ICE agents to follow the law and check as well as document that each person they arrest without a warrant poses a flight menace He also ordered the agency to regularly turn over a random selection of arrest forms to the attorneys who filed the suit including several with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado During the late-October hearing the four immigrants attorneys pointed to The Denver Post s reporting about the surge in up-to-date immigration arrests in Colorado as well as to statements from senior federal functionaries indicating that they planned to arrest any person they encountered who lacked proper legal status In his order Jackson noted that without a court s intervention ICE s pattern of illegal arrests was likely to increase ICE has almost doubled its headcount in Colorado this year alone is actively recruiting and hiring multiple more officers and plans to open three additional detention centers in Colorado nearly tripling its current quota Jackson wrote On this record plaintiffs have shown that without the requested injunction there is likely to be a substantial increase in the number of warrantless arrests made without probable cause of flight vulnerability He pointed to the contemporary arrests of a Durango father and his two children as evidence ICE arrested the father after initially mistaking him for someone else but still kept him and his adolescent children detained The family agreed to voluntarily return to Colombia earlier this month though they remain in ICE detention according to an agency database Related Articles Certain DACA recipients have been arrested in the Trump s immigration crackdown Trump allows more foreign ag workers eases off ICE raids on farms Colorado nonprofits encrypt messages lock doors to ward off federal threats Will they come after you Big Brother is tracking you Denver s descent into surveillance dystopia Opinion Trump administration plans to review refugees admitted under Biden memo obtained by The AP says Representatives for ICE and the U S Department of Homeland Assurance which oversees the agency did not instantly respond to a request for comment on the ruling In a brief initial comment one of the attorneys who filed the suit hailed the decision ICE s hubris and lawlessness have been on national display for months Hans Meyer wrote in a text message to The Post But as Judge Jackson s decision makes clear no one including ICE is above the law This is a growing story and will be updated