Quintero Alvarez v. Baltazar, et al. (Amicus)

In Colorado, ICE has arrested people without warrants and without probable cause, in violation of the law and court orders, and now continues to hold people in detention when courts order they must be released. In response to these re-arrests, we filed an amicus brief in Quintero Alvarez v. Baltazar, et al. and the Court granted our motion to appear and argue at the evidentiary hearing on November 9.

Across the country and here in Colorado, ICE has arrested people without warrants and without probable cause, in violation of the law and court orders, and now continues to hold people in detention when courts order they must be released. In response to the continued detention, the ACLU of Colorado, alongside immigration attorney and law professor Elizabeth Jordan, filed an amicus brief in Quintero Alvarez v. Baltazar, et al.

The court document details how ICE gathered a group of men on October 27 and told them they were being released from the GEO detention facility in Aurora, but instead they were kept in ICE custody and then put back in detention shortly after their false “release.” The men, who had been ordered released by a federal judge, were forced out of the gates of the GEO facility and then immediately swarmed by ICE officers who told them they were once again under arrest. ICE repeated that same cruel sham many times between October 27 and November 3.

U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney ordered the ICE Field Office Director for Denver, Nathan Rasper, to appear in court on Monday, November 9, to address these violations. On Sunday, November 8, Judge Sweeney also granted the emergency motion for the ACLU of Colorado, and Jordan, to appear and argue at the hearing.

Jordan and the ACLU of Colorado have identified at least 17 cases in Colorado where ICE has held people in detention who courts have ordered be released. In one case, a man who petitioned the courts for his release, and was granted it, described the terrifying moment when he was supposed to be released, but was arrested and taken back into detention. The petitioner in Lebrun v. Baltazar described ICE agents turning off their body cameras when he asked what was happening to him and then being threatened with criminal prosecution. In another case, the man described getting excited to see his family, then not even making it to the sidewalk outside the detention facility before he was taken back into custody.

“Federal judges ordered their release from Aurora’s detention center. ICE was waiting outside to re-arrest them,” The Denver Post, November 7, 2026.

“Denver Judge Orders ICE Director to Explain Re-Arrests Minutes After Release,” Hoodline, November 8, 2026.