Immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and created warrants after an arrest, lawyers say in court
Chicago attorneys were in federal court Thursday accusing federal agents of violating immigration law and the constitutional rights of at least 22 people since January.
Chicago attorneys were in federal court Thursday accusing federal agents of violating immigration law and the constitutional rights of at least 22 people since January.
www.wbez.org
“… Attorneys say these actions violate the
Nava Settlement — a 2018 class-action lawsuit filed in response to unlawful arrests by ICE agents who used traffic stops and other tactics to make arrests without a warrant. Under the agreement, ICE officials can conduct a warrantless arrest if they believe an individual is likely to escape but they must provide evidence. But in the motion filed Thursday in federal court in Chicago, attorneys said federal agents since January “failed to assess whether there was probable cause that an individual was likely to flee before a warrant could be issued.”
… The 22 cases include Chicago resident Julio Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID.
“I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.”
In another case
Abel Orozco-Ortega was detained outside his home in suburban Lyons without a warrant, just as he was arriving home from buying tamales. Federal agents were looking for one of his sons, who is about 20 years younger. But arrested Orozco-Ortega instead.
In his statement, Orozco-Ortega, 47, said an agent who identified as a police officer approached his car and asked to see a driver’s license. Orozco-Ortega was arrested shortly after showing a “
Temporary Visitor’s” driver’s license, which used to be given to non-citizens in Illinois.
Instead of releasing him, federal agents allegedly kept him in the back of the vehicle, and purportedly created an administrative warrant while Orozco-Ortega was handcuffed, said Fleming, the National Immigrant Justice Center attorney. Orozco-Ortega has been detained at the Clay County Jail in Indiana for about a month.
“[Federal agents] have seemingly developed a pattern or practice of trying to evade the [Nava] settlement by arresting people with … quote, unquote, administrative warrants that they are creating in the field, as they’ve already had the person detained,” Fleming said. …”