DENVER — The ACLU of Colorado alongside immigration attorney and law professor, Elizabeth Jordan filed, an amicus brief in Quintero Alvarez v. Baltazar, et al. on Saturday, November 7. 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.
“These actions by ICE are appalling and yet another example of how ICE and the Trump administration are trying to skirt the system to defy court orders. ICE repeatedly violates court orders and continues to cause profound harm in our communities with its brutal tactics,” said Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado legal director. “ICE must immediately release anyone subjected to these sham procedures and be held accountable for this brazen and unlawful conduct.”
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.
“ICE’s actions are not only harmful to the court’s authority and rule of law, but they are deliberately traumatizing the people who should be released and their families. They have the anticipation of finally seeing their families again and their families expect them home, but ICE instead keeps them in custody,” said Conor Gleason, ACLU of Colorado staff attorney. “ICE has proved they will not stop these unlawful and cruel tactics without immediate court intervention.”
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. ICE has also conducted these sham releases in Minnesota.
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Quintero Alvarez v. Baltazar, et al. (Amicus)
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