For the second time this week, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen was forced to argue that he should not be held in contempt over failure to return property to people who were ordered released from immigration detention.
U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim ordered Rosen, Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on Thursday to answer for five cases in which people were released from immigration custody without their personal property, including critical documents needed to drive and work.
Tunheim did not issue a ruling Thursday afternoon, but said he is still weighing a civil contempt of court charge and will set a deadline to ensure the government compensates people whose property is lost.
“I am serious about this, I want to get this over with,” Tunheim said, adding that the lack of communication from the government in the cases has been “inexcusable.”
The hearing came two days after Rosen was grilled by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Bryan over ICE’s failure to return property to released detainees. Bryan said he is considering a criminal contempt of court charge and hadn’t ruled out imprisoning Rosen as a consequence.
Thursday’s hearing was shorter and less confrontational, but offered insights on the steep challenges faced by immigrants arrested by ICE even after their release. Rosen made several assurances that ICE would return the property soon or that the government would quickly compensate people. Immigration lawyers at the hearing expressed skepticism that the government would follow through on its promises absent court oversight.
“We have no faith that the government will be able to follow through on these representations,” attorney Mary Kaczorek said.
Kaczorek is representing a Guatemalan asylum seeker who was arrested without a warrant and shipped out of state, separating him from his two young children. He was released without his Minnesota driver’s license, Guatemalan consulate card and Guatemalan driver’s license. Not having those documents has caused him great hardship, she said.
Her client wrote a statement to the court, which she read aloud.
“I have been unable to attend my children’s medical appointments or therapy,” the man wrote. “My greatest fear is being detained again because I do not have documents.”
Many people ordered released from immigration custody without conditions by federal judges did have conditions imposed on them by ICE agents, the hearing revealed.
Claire Glenn, an attorney representing a Venezuelan family who was detained when bounty hunters working for ICE entered their St. Paul home without a warrant, said that ICE imposed check-in conditions on them after their release in defiance of the court order. A minor in the family with asthma didn’t have access to his inhaler while detained, according to court filings. One member of the family is still missing their work permit. The experience was very traumatic, she said.
Just before Thursday’s hearing, the government issued a new court filing saying the conditions imposed on the family were dropped, Rosen said.
“We do regret the fact that along the course of the way that conditions were named to several of these respondents upon their release, but that’s done,” Rosen said.
During a discussion with the judge on detainees’ missing items, Rosen said ICE is no longer shipping detainees out of state now that Operation Metro Surge has ended.
“No one is being sent to El Paso anymore, there shouldn’t be more issues, your honor,” Rosen said.
The released immigrants suffered a traumatic experience during detention and have since been struggling to operate without critical items and documents, the attorneys argued. An Afghan woman with pending refugee status who was arrested and held for five days lost her job at Wal-Mart because she missed her shift, her attorney Larry LaTarte said. She also missed a week of work at her second job. That woman is entitled to compensation, he said.
Tunheim asked Rosen about the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to issue new work permits for those whose documents ICE lost while in custody. That process should take about five days, Rosen said.
Tunheim said he would work on setting a firm deadline for when the government had to compensate people for the property they lost. He acknowledged that the typical process of filing a tort claim would take too long.
“Court is slow and people are being harmed now,” Glenn said.
