ICE Official Says Colorado Re-Arrests Followed Minnesota Lead

An ICE official testified Monday that he ordered agents in Colorado to immediately re-arrest immigrants freed by federal judges after learning similar tactics were being used by colleagues in Minnesota.

Acting Denver Field Office Director Nathan Rasper told U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney that the decision to implement these re-arrests followed reports that courts in Minnesota “allowed the immediate re-arrest of an alien released,” according to MPR News.

The testimony comes as federal judges in two different states grapple with whether immigration enforcement agencies are circumventing judicial orders. While two Minnesota judges found that such instant re-arrests did not violate their specific orders, two other judges strongly disagreed. The matter is currently awaiting a decision from an appellate court.

“Releasing somebody momentarily is not releasing somebody at all,” Judge Sweeney said during a hearing on Nov. 4.

ICE Official Says Colorado Re-Arrests Followed Minnesota Lead

Monday’s hearing marked the second time Judge Sweeney has questioned ICE officials regarding their conduct. The scrutiny intensified after she learned a man she had ordered released was immediately re-detained on Oct. 27.

During the first hearing on Nov. 4, assistant U.S. attorney Andrew Soler representing the government said that the man re-detained on Oct. 27 was “at least the 10th in a week,” MPR News reported.

Following that initial hearing, Judge Sweeney ordered the government to provide a comprehensive list of every Colorado case since Oct. 27 where ICE re-arrested an individual within a 12-hour window of a court-ordered release. This window of time spanned approximately nine days.

While the full list submitted by the government has not been reviewed by MPR News, a court order indicates the document included 14 people who had since been released again. The ACLU of Colorado told the court on Monday that this figure is likely an undercount.

Judge orders ICE to answer questions over re-arrests of Colorado detainees ordered released — CBS Colorado

The practice of immediate re-detention has also been documented in Minnesota. MPR News confirmed that at least eight men in Minnesota were instantly re-arrested by ICE agents after federal judges ordered their release.

In these instances, the men were taken to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for processing, where they signed release paperwork and received their personal belongings. Agents then re-arrested them before they could depart federal property. In one documented case, a man was instantly re-arrested twice.

The ICE St. Paul field office did not respond to inquiries regarding whether it had advised agents in other states to adopt these re-arrest tactics. However, an unnamed spokesperson for ICE’s Midwest office defended the practice on Tuesday, stating that “when appropriate, ICE will address the issues identified by the court and take further action consistent with applicable law and court orders, which can include rearresting an offender.”

The tension between executive enforcement and judicial authority reached a peak on Oct. 27, when an unnamed ICE spokesperson wrote that the agency “may seek to rearrest the alien in a way that complies with the judicial decision,” adding that claiming ICE cannot do so is “nothing short of sabotage.”

Rasper testified that he stopped the re-arrests in Colorado following the first hearing on Nov. 4.

Judge Sweeney’s written order regarding whether she will hold the government in contempt remains pending.