PORTLAND, Ore. — U.S. immigration agents in Oregon must stop making warrantless arrests unless there is a likelihood the person will escape, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s practice of detaining immigrants encountered during ramped-up enforcement operations — a tactic critics call “arrest first, justify later.” The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Courts in Colorado and Washington, D.C., have issued similar rulings, which the government has appealed. Last week, Todd Lyons, acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, circulated a memo stressing that agents should not arrest someone without an administrative arrest warrant from a supervisor unless they develop probable cause to believe the person is in the U.S. illegally and likely to flee before a warrant can be obtained. The judge heard evidence that agents in Oregon have conducted arrests during sweeps without such warrants or any determination that escape was likely.
At a daylong hearing, one plaintiff, 56-year-old Victor Cruz Gamez, testified he has lived in the U.S. since 1999 and was arrested and held for three weeks despite having a valid work permit and a pending visa application. Cruz Gamez said he was pulled over while driving home from work in October, shown his driver’s license and work permit, yet was detained, taken to the ICE building in Portland and later moved to an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. He said he nearly faced deportation until a lawyer secured his release.
Cruz Gamez, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, became emotional describing the impact on his family: they did not open their door for three weeks out of fear and one grandchild refused to go to school. A government lawyer later told him he was sorry for what happened.
Kasubhai criticized agents’ conduct in Oregon, saying actions that included drawing guns on people detained for civil immigration violations have been “violent and brutal” and raised concerns about denying due process. “Due process calls for those who have great power to exercise great restraint,” he said. “That is the bedrock of a democratic republic founded on this great constitution. I think we’re losing that.”
The lawsuit was filed by nonprofit Innovation Law Lab. Its executive director, Stephen Manning, said he expects the case to prompt change in Oregon by requiring the government to follow the law. The preliminary injunction will remain in place while the lawsuit proceeds.