Judge Probes Whether ICE Re-Arrested Detainees After Court-Ordered Releases in Colorado

A federal judge is examining whether immigration authorities in the U.S. state of Colorado are re-arresting people even after courts ordered their release. Nathan Rasper, director of the ICE field office in Denver, has been ordered to appear in court on Monday.

The inquiry followed an order issued on November 5 by Judge Charlotte Sweeney. Earlier, she had directed the government to identify every case in Colorado since October 27 in which ICE re-detained someone within 12 hours of a court-ordered release.

Federal officials later said they had identified 14 petitioners who were re-arrested after being released. But the filing did not provide the precise timing of when the releases and re-arrests occurred.

Judge Sweeney directed officials to provide the exact dates and times of those releases and re-arrests, and to identify anyone else detained immediately following court-ordered releases.

At a hearing on November 4, the judge questioned whether ICE was circumventing judicial orders by briefly releasing detainees before immediately taking them back into custody. At that hearing, she ordered Rasper to appear at a follow-up hearing on Monday.

The inquiry stems in part from the case of Ramon Quintero Alvarez, who was released from immigration detention on October 27 before ICE immediately took him back into custody, according to a government court filing.

In a court filing on November 3, federal government attorneys said they would not submit a legal brief defending the lawfulness of Alvarez's continued detention.

At the November 4 hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Soler and Kevin Traskos appeared alongside ICE Assistant Field Office Director Nichole Black, who testified under oath about the circumstances surrounding Alvarez's re-arrest.

At that hearing, Judge Sweeney ordered Alvarez to be released and barred immigration authorities from detaining him again unless the government demonstrated, by clear and convincing evidence at a bond hearing, that he posed a flight risk or danger to the community.

The government must submit the additional information requested by the judge by 8 a.m. Monday, ahead of Rasper's scheduled court appearance later that morning. Judge Sweeney has not indicated whether she intends to pursue contempt proceedings.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that when a person is ordered released by a judge, that does not immunize the person from immigration enforcement for all time. The statement said ICE may seek to re-arrest the person in a way that complies with the judicial decision, and that to suggest otherwise is 'nothing short of sabotage.'

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Biden-appointed judges are 'almost impossible' to work with. In Colorado, other Biden-appointed federal judges, including U.S. District Judges Nina Wang and S. Kato Crews, have presided over cases involving similar disputes over immigration detention and court-ordered releases.