PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge has ordered U.S. immigration agents in Oregon to stop making warrantless arrests unless there is a likelihood the person would flee, issuing a preliminary injunction Wednesday in a proposed class-action lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai granted the injunction challenging Department of Homeland Security practices that critics call an “arrest first, justify later” approach during stepped-up enforcement operations. The department did not immediately comment.
Similar federal rulings have been handed down in Colorado and Washington, D.C., and the government has appealed those decisions. Last week, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons circulated guidance advising agents not to arrest someone without an administrative arrest warrant from a supervisor unless they have probable cause to believe the person is in the country unlawfully and likely to flee before a warrant could be obtained. At a daylong hearing in Oregon, the court heard evidence that agents carried out arrests during sweeps without such warrants or any determination that the person posed a flight risk.
One plaintiff, 56-year-old Victor Cruz Gamez, said he has lived in the U.S. since 1999 and was detained for three weeks despite holding a valid work permit and having a pending visa application. Cruz Gamez testified that he was stopped while driving home from work in October, showed his driver’s license and work permit, yet was taken to ICE’s Portland office and later transferred to an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. He said he nearly faced deportation until an attorney secured his release. Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, he described the emotional toll on his family: they stayed inside for three weeks and a grandchild refused to attend school.
Judge Kasubhai sharply criticized some agents’ conduct in Oregon, saying encounters in which officers drew guns on individuals for civil immigration violations had been “violent and brutal” and raised due-process concerns. He urged restraint from officials wielding significant power, calling that restraint foundational to a democratic republic.
The suit was filed by the nonprofit Innovation Law Lab. Its executive director, Stephen Manning, said he expects the case to force compliance with the law in Oregon. The preliminary injunction will remain in effect while the lawsuit proceeds.