Judge orders ICE field office director to answer questions over re-arrests of Colorado detainees ordered released
Some former detainees in Colorado and their attorneys say Immigration and Customs Enforcement is re-arresting people who have been ordered released by federal judges, and that those same federal judges are growing tired of the practice. ICE argues that it can re-arrest detainees.
One man who wished to be identified only as Emmanuel said he has been out of federal custody for only 24 hours after being re-arrested at the GEO detention center in Aurora. He says he came to the United States 26 years ago as a student. Since then, he says he started a successful software business and a family, all the while trying to earn citizenship. He says he has been rejected many times.
"It's not because of lack of trying. Most of the time the process is just so convoluted to the point where you are never really successfully able to do that," said Emmanuel.
But somewhere along that 20-year journey, the federal government says he missed an immigration check-in. Emmanuel says he didn't know until April 2026, when he was on a business trip driving through Wyoming and got pulled over by a sheriff's deputy. He immediately called his family.
"And [I] said, 'Hey, I think I'm going to get arrested because this officer is asking about my immigration status,'" said Emmanuel.
He was arrested and taken to the GEO group holding facility in Aurora, where he stayed for just over seven months.
"I lost moments. My daughter went to school for the first time while I was up there, and I couldn't be there for her. I'm robbed of things that matter the most to me," said Emmanuel.
So, he was excited when a federal judge ordered his release. But the day he was released wasn't the day he would ultimately get his freedom.
"An ICE officer came and said, 'Oh, I'll escort you out,'" said Emmanuel. "[He] handed me my bag and said, 'Ok, you've been released,' and as soon as I stepped out one step, there were five ICE officers that were waiting outside in bulletproof vests and cameras and everything. And they grabbed me, and they said, 'Oh, you've been re-arrested from that release.'"
The ACLU says Emmanuel isn't the only person this has happened to. They say this practice of re-arresting people ordered released by federal judges has happened more than a dozen times in a week.
"What we're seeing is just irresponsible, contemptuous behavior from ICE," said ACLU attorney Tim Macdonald.
The Department of Homeland Security defended the re-arrests, saying:
"ICE complies with all lawful court orders. When an illegal alien is ordered released by a judge, that does not immunize the alien from immigration enforcement for all time. ICE may seek to re-arrest the alien in a way that complies with the judicial decision. To suggest that ICE cannot do this is nothing short of sabotage."
Macdonald says ICE needs to follow judges' orders.
"The position that ICE is taking is absurd," said Macdonald. "It's like the response you might get from a teenage kid. It's un-American, and it's making a mockery of our court orders."
Federal judge Charlotte Sweeney has ordered the field office director for ICE to be in her courtroom Monday morning to address his agency's practices.
Emmanuel says he doesn't hold any hard feelings. He just wants justice for himself and the people he met inside the GEO Group's detention center.
"If anything, [it] makes me love the country more because I now know the weakness and the flaws of the country, and I can appreciate the beauty of it as well," said Emmanuel.