Federal Judge Orders ICE Retraining After Warrantless Arrest Violations in Colorado

R. Brooke Jackson, a senior U.S. district judge in Denver, ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Colorado violated his November preliminary injunction limiting warrantless arrests, finding that officers continued making arrests without individualized probable cause determinations of flight risk and uniformly failed to follow documentation requirements. Jackson ordered ICE to develop a training program within two weeks and ensure all officers authorized to make warrantless arrests in Colorado complete it within 45 days. Officers who remain untrained must cease conducting such arrests. The judge also directed the government to turn over additional arrest records and pay the plaintiffs' legal fees.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last fall by the ACLU of Colorado on behalf of Refugio Ramirez and four other undocumented immigrants with no criminal records who alleged they were unlawfully arrested. The ACLU accused ICE of indiscriminately arresting Latinos to meet enforcement quotas under President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts. ICE, which has appealed Jackson's November decision, did not comment on the new ruling. Similar orders restricting warrantless immigration arrests have been issued by federal judges in Oregon, California, and Washington, D.C. over the past year.