PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge has ordered U.S. immigration agents in Oregon to stop making warrantless arrests unless they have probable cause that a person is likely to escape, issuing a preliminary injunction Wednesday in a proposed class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai granted the injunction challenging the department’s practice of detaining immigrants encountered during intensified enforcement sweeps — tactics critics characterize as “arrest first, justify later.” The order forbids warrantless arrests in Oregon when officials lack probable cause to believe a person will flee before a warrant can be obtained. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment.
Kasubhai’s ruling follows comparable injunctions in Colorado and Washington, D.C., both of which the government has appealed. Last week, Todd Lyons, acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, issued a memo directing agents not to make arrests without an administrative arrest warrant from a supervisor unless they develop probable cause that the person is in the U.S. illegally and likely to flee before a warrant can be secured. Evidence presented at the hearing showed that in Oregon agents sometimes carried out sweeps without such warrants or any assessment that escape was likely.
At a daylong hearing, plaintiff Victor Cruz Gamez testified that he has lived in the United States since 1999 and holds a valid work permit while a visa application is pending. He said immigration agents stopped him last October while he was driving home from work, and despite showing his driver’s license and work authorization he was taken to an ICE office in Portland and later transported to a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington. Cruz Gamez said he was held for three weeks and came close to deportation before an attorney secured his release. He described severe emotional effects on his family, saying his wife avoided answering the door for weeks and a grandchild was afraid to attend school.
Kasubhai strongly criticized the conduct of agents in Oregon, recounting instances when officers drew guns during detentions for civil immigration violations and describing some operations as “violent and brutal.” He warned that the administration’s practices risk denying due process to people caught up in raids, saying due process requires those with great power to exercise restraint.
The lawsuit was filed by Innovation Law Lab. Executive Director Stephen Manning said the case aims to force the government to follow the law and that he expects the injunction to prompt changes in Oregon. The preliminary order will remain in place while the litigation proceeds.