Search Results for: detainer

Immigration detainer panel live today

Join a live conversation about one of the most pressing features of immigration policing today: immigration detainers. Kate Evans, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Idaho; Mark Silverstein, Legal Director of the ACLU of Colorado; and my colleague Christopher N. Lasch, Professor of Law at the University of Denver will be speaking at the University of Denver College of Law at 12:00 p.m. MST today. Their panel, Upending Local Immigration Imprisonment: Immigration Detainer Challenges, is part of the Crimmigration Law & Policy Event Series at the University of Denver. The event [...]

Massachusetts top court deals detainers another blow

In another loss for federal immigration officials, the highest court in Massachusetts decided yesterday that it is illegal under state law to hold someone on an immigration detainer. Lunn v. Commonwealth, No. SJC-12276, slip op. (Mass. July 24, 2017). This case involved a man who was held in a courthouse holding cell after the judge overseeing a criminal prosecution against him dismissed the case. [Disclosure: I was one of many immigration law scholars to sign a brief authored by my colleague Christopher Lasch submitted on behalf of Mr. Lunn.] The state’s Supreme Judicial Court easily [...]

Detainer without probable cause of crime violates 4th Amendment

Adding to the growing caselaw about the constitutional infirmities of immigration detainers, a federal district court in Texas concluded this week that a detainer lacking probable cause of criminal activity violates the Fourth Amendment. Trujillo Santoyo v. United States, No. 5:16-cv-00855-OLG, slip op. (W.D. Tex. June 5, 2017). This case involved an individual arrested on criminal charges that were dismissed without a conviction. While lawfully jailed in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center during the pendency of the criminal case, ICE issued an immigration detainer against Trujillo [...]

ICE’s new immigration detainer policy remains legally flawed

Today, ICE issued a new policy regarding use of immigration detainers. Sometimes called immigration holds, detainers are requests by ICE that a local law enforcement agency continue holding someone in the LEAs custody. The purpose of continued confinement is to give ICE time to pick up the individual. The policy announced today instructs immigration officers, including local police deputized as immigration officers pursuant to a 287(g) agreement, to issue detainers against anyone who they have probable cause to believe is removable from the United States. Though couched in carefully crafted [...]

Migrants, detainers, & sanctuary cities

The unfortunate death of thirty-two year old Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco allegedly at the hands of a man lacking permission to be in the United States has reignited old refrains about migrant illegality and border insecurity. Coming on the heels of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s infamous claims that many Mexican migrants are rapists or drug dealers, this sad affair has thrown political commentators and politicians into a tizzy about migrant criminality. As could be expected, Republicans have jumped on this event, the facts of which remain very unclear, to repeat their [...]

Immigration detainer workshop

Immigration detainers are a key feature of current-day crimmigration law enforcement. They enable ICE to identify and apprehend potentially removable individuals who come into contact with local law enforcement agencies across the United States. In recent years, ICE has used detainers quite vigorously. From October 2011 to August 2013, the agency issued 436,478 detainers. Immigration detainers essentially ask local law enforcement agencies such as sheriffs’ offices to hold a potentially removable migrant for up to 48 hours after the end of the criminal matter. For example, 48 hours after a [...]

Oregon federal court: Detainer led to Fourth Amendment violation

A federal magistrate judge in Oregon concluded that county officials violated a woman’s Fourth Amendment rights when they kept her in custody solely on the basis of an immigration detainer. Miranda-Olivares v. Clackamas County, No. 3:12-cv-02317-ST, slip op. (D. Or. April 11, 2014) (Stewart, Magistrate Judge). This case involved a woman who was arrested for violating a restraining order. Though county jail officials did not ask her about her immigration status, they somehow learned that she was born outside the United States. Pursuant to a jail policy, they then notified ICE. The next [...]

Unflattering picture of ICE’s use of detainers

A report released this week by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University casts serious doubt on ICE's claim that it uses detainers to target noncitizens who pose a danger to the public. TRAC, Few ICE Detainers Target Serious Criminals (September 17, 2013). According to ICE data that TRAC obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, just under half (47.7% or 165,769) of detainers were issued against people with no criminal conviction whatsoever. Between October 1, 2011 and January 31, 2013, ICE issued 347,691 detainers. Of the individuals against whom a detainer [...]