Update Jan. 27, 4:15 p.m.: Juan Hugo Tobay Robles was released from an immigration detention center in Texas Tuesday afternoon, according to his attorney, which makes it unlikely Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons will appear in federal court Friday.
Minnesota’s top federal judge says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is routinely violating court orders demanding that the agency release wrongfully detained immigrants, and ordered the agency’s director to appear in person to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt.
Minnesota U.S. Chief District Judge Patrick Schlitz on Monday ordered ICE acting director Todd Lyons to either comply with a court order to release an Ecuadorian man arrested in Minnesota, or to appear in federal court Friday to demonstrate why he should not be found in contempt of court.
“The court’s patience is at an end,” Schlitz wrote.
The order to appear comes after dozens of cases in which ICE failed to comply with judicial orders to release people being illegally detained in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities.
Minnesota man held in Texas
Juan Hugo Tobay Robles entered the United States as a minor in 1999, according to court documents. ICE arrested him in Minnesota on Jan. 6, his attorney, Graham Ojala-Barbour, told Sahan Journal. Tobay Robles was pulled over on a freeway and roughly arrested by about 12 agents, Ojala-Barbour said. Agents struck him in his back and hurt his hand during the arrest, Ojala-Barbour said.
Tobay Robles was transferred to Texas shortly after his arrest. On Jan. 14, a federal judge granted a habeas petition and ordered Tobay Robles to be released from ICE custody. But that didn’t happen. Tobay Robles remained at El Valle Detention Center in southeast Texas as of Tuesday morning, Ojala-Barbour said. The government never responded to Tobay Robles’ petition for release, according to court documents.
“His [Tobay Robles] concern is just that he be released as soon as possible. He has some medical issues he feels are not being addressed,” Ojala-Barbour said. “He hopes to be out soon. He is suffering there.”
Immigrants without final orders of removal are being detained en masse in Minnesota, where more than 3,000 federal agents are aggressively carrying out what DHS calls the largest immigration enforcement effort in the nation’s history. When immigration lawyers successfully petition for their release, ICE is often not following the court orders.
“This is one of dozens of court orders with which the respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks,” Schlitz wrote in reference to Tobay Robles’ case. “The practical consequences of respondents’ failure to comply has almost always been significant hardship to aliens (many of whom have lawfully lived in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong).”
In many cases, Schlitz wrote, people are being sent to Texas when they should be kept in Minnesota. Some people being brought to Texas are released and told to find their own way home.
Sahan Journal reported in December that an average of 114 people detained by ICE in Minnesota were being shipped out of state each month. The move raised concerns from detainees’ families and legal counsel who struggle to track their whereabouts. The practice has only increased as Operation Metro Surge expanded in January.
That’s true for Tobay Robles, Ojala-Barbour said. He has been moved between multiple Texas detention centers in the past three weeks. Last week, Ojala Barbour said, government attorneys asked if Tobay Robles wanted to be released in Texas or Minnesota. Minnesota was preferred, but after a week passed without his release, Tobay Robles agreed to be set free in Texas, which hasn’t happened. A relative is currently driving to Texas to pick Tobay Robles up, Ojala-Barbour said.
Schlitz’s order says that Lyons can avoid the hearing if Tobay Robles is released from custody and both parties confirm his release.
ICE and their attorneys are struggling to track the hundreds of people being arrested in Minnesota, Ojala-Barbour said, and he has other clients in a similar position. When he contacts the U.S. Attorney’s Office about getting a client released following a successful habeas petition, those attorneys have to contact ICE to find them.
“It’s a great thing that the Minnesota District Court is expeditiously granting these petitions,” Ojala-Barbour said. “The flip side of that is they should have never been arrested in the first place.”
