DENVER, CO — A federal judge has issued a sweeping order banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement from carrying out warrantless arrests in Colorado after determining the agency’s practices violate federal law, according to reporting from Colorado Politics.
The ruling follows a lawsuit alleging that immigration agents were conducting indiscriminate stops based on appearance, accent, and perceived nationality, escalating fear across immigrant communities throughout the state.
According to Colorado Politics, the lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Colorado in partnership with the Meyer Law Office and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC on behalf of four individuals who were detained without warrants. The complaint asserts that ICE agents were making arrests “without making the required determinations of people’s immigration status or flight risk,” undermining the limits federal law places on warrantless enforcement.
The lawsuit argues that immigration agents “do not have unfettered authority to make warrantless arrests,” despite ICE repeatedly acting as though they did.
“People are terrified that masked agents will snatch their loved ones or neighbors from the street because an ICE agent believes they look different or speak with an accent,” said ACLU of Colorado legal director Tim Macdonald in the organization’s public statement, as quoted by Colorado Politics. “This is unacceptable. The courts must see ICE’s actions for what they are: an unlawful abuse of power that must be stopped.”
Colorado Politics reports that the judge granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, effectively blocking ICE from continuing the challenged arrest practices statewide. The court simultaneously granted class certification, extending protections not just to the four named plaintiffs but to all similarly situated people in Colorado.
In a statement shared in the article, immigration attorney Hans Meyer, who represents the plaintiffs, said the decision affirms that “no one — including ICE — is above the law.”
The ruling prohibits ICE from making warrantless arrests unless officers can show both probable cause that an individual is violating federal immigration law and probable cause the person “is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained,” a standard Colorado Politics notes is required under federal statute.
The complaint highlighted in the article claims ICE had routinely ignored these requirements and had instead been carrying out stops rooted in “arbitrary” quotas, racial profiling, and broad enforcement directives.
ICE’s response, referenced by Colorado Politics, argued the ACLU had not met the legal burden necessary for the injunction and emphasized that ICE officers receive twice-yearly training on warrantless arrest procedures. ICE stated in court that officers must have “reason to believe both that the individual is an alien illegally in the United States and that the individual is likely to escape before an arrest warrant can be obtained,” asserting agents follow these guidelines.
The agency also described a range of factors it considers in assessing flight risk, including whether a person provides truthful answers, has fled before, lacks community ties, or has attempted to evade detection.
According to Colorado Politics, ICE maintains that each of the four arrests challenged in the lawsuit complied with federal law, stating that officers “gathered information indicating that the individual was not lawfully in the United States” and believed there was a risk the individual might leave the area before a warrant could be secured. The article notes that after each arrest, warrants were eventually issued and three plaintiffs were required to wear ankle monitors as the cases progressed.
Despite ICE’s arguments, the judge sided with the plaintiffs and concluded the evidence showed a pattern of unlawful arrests occurring across Colorado, Colorado Politics reports. The injunction halts those practices while the case proceeds and provides immediate protections to people who may otherwise be subject to warrantless detention based on profiling or insufficient investigation.
The ruling represents a major legal challenge to ICE’s operations in the state and marks one of the most significant judicial rebukes of warrantless immigration enforcement in recent years. According to Colorado Politics, advocates believe the decision sends a clear message that federal immigration officers must operate within the limits of the law and that communities should not be subjected to fear-driven policing practices that lack constitutional grounding.
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