ICE must repay bond to immigrants detained without warrants in Colorado

DENVER (CN) — Granting a preliminary injunction, a federal judge on Tuesday ordered immigration authorities to cover bond paid by four immigrants who were improperly detained without warrants in Colorado this year.

“Collectively, the record supports the conclusion that ICE is routinely conducting warrantless arrests in Colorado without making the statutorily required individualized assessment of flight risk,” Senior U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote in a 66-page opinion.

Caroline Dias Goncalves, an immigrant from Brazil, was pulled over by a local sheriff’s deputy for trailing too closely to a tractor-trailer while driving through Colorado to visit a friend. Shortly after being released with a warning, the 20-year-old student was pulled over by ICE down the road and detained for two weeks before posting bond.

Goncalves is one of four named plaintiffs who filed a class action against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Oct. 9, challenging the government’s practice of carrying out warrantless arrests against immigrants without first assessing if they had violated an immigration law or posed a flight risk.

During a two-day evidentiary hearing last month, Jackson heard testimony from leaders in Denver’s ICE field office as well as immigrants who were detained with neither warrants nor flight risk assessments.

“No reasonable officer could have reasonably concluded that these plaintiffs were likely to flee before a warrant could be obtained,” wrote the Barack Obama appointee. “Yet ICE nonetheless arrested each one immediately and detained them for significant periods, causing severe hardship and loss.”

Not only were the named plaintiffs not ICE targets, Jackson found, “they were not the worst of the worst.”

Colorado is home to an estimated 169,000 immigrants without legal status — roughly 3% of the state population. In the complaint, Goncalves claims ICE agents increased warrantless arrests against immigrants to meet increased detention quotas set by the Trump administration, aiming to detain 3,000 people daily.

Jackson ordered ICE to repay the cost of bond incurred by the four named plaintiffs.

Jackson also certified a class including anyone in the District of Colorado who has been subject to a warrantless arrest since Jan. 20, or is at risk of being detained by ICE without a proper probable cause assessment.

In court, the government argued the immigrants lacked standing to sue since ICE officers obtained warrants after their arrest, rendering it impossible to be rearrested without a warrant. Jackson rejected the logic, stating it nullified the law as written.

“To give Congress’ words meaning and force, the court rejects these post hoc warrants as a vehicle for depriving plaintiffs of standing,” Jackson wrote.

Jackson ordered ICE agents to properly document reasons for making warrantless arrests and to list information learned after the arrest separately. While Jackson also ordered immigration authorities to provide the plaintiffs’ attorneys with a random set of arrest forms to ensure compliance, he denied a request for similar proof of renewed training on the issue since bad training didn’t seem to be driving the practice.

“The court has confirmed what has been enshrined in federal law for decades: ICE cannot terrify our communities with their haphazard warrantless arrests,” said Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado legal director, in a statement. “A federal court has now declared that ICE must immediately stop these aggressive and unlawful tactics.”

Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor the Department of Homeland Security responded immediately to inquiries for comment.

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