ICE says father who was detained in Durango, Colorado was "mistaken" for someone else
The father detained with his two children by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in southwestern Colorado earlier this week was wrongly identified by agents, a senior official with ICE's Denver field office said on Friday.
The official, Gregory Davies, testified in a federal court hearing on Friday that 45-year-old Fernando Jaramillo-Solano was "mistaken" for someone else immigration agents were looking for. Jaramillo-Solano was taking his 12-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son to school in Durango when they were stopped by ICE agents and taken into custody. All three remained in ICE custody as of Friday.
Word of the family's detention, combined with a now-viral video, prompted a protest outside ICE's Durango facility.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday that it's investigating the use of force by an anonymous, masked agent against a woman at the protest, as well as any "state criminal law violations during the incident." That agent's actions could be seen in multiple videos.
The case in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado centers around allegedly warrantless arrests and was originally filed on Oct. 9 by the ACLU of Colorado, Meyer Law Office, and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray, LLC against ICE, its Denver Field Office, ICE's parent agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and several senior DHS and ICE officials.
In that testimony on Friday, Davies went on to testify that ICE will not arrest anyone who's going through legal immigration proceedings. Attorneys for the plaintiffs pointed out that Jaramillo-Solano was going through the asylum process -- a position also taken by Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center, the Durango-based organization that said it was helping him with his asylum claim.
"There's this false idea that immigrants are criminals, but it's not true. This family was- they were doing everything legally, everything by the books, they were going through the system, doing their best to do it legally, like people say that they want immigrants to do, and then this is how they're treated," Matt Karkut, co-executive director of Compañeros, told CBS News Colorado on Friday.
A spokesman for ICE's Denver field office said on Friday the agency doesn't comment on a person's asylum status. He also said the agency doesn't comment on details of a detainee's case, including court dates or movements between facilities, and declined to comment on Davies' court testimony.
The detention of the three family members in Durango is one of two ICE operations in Colorado that have attracted attention in the past week. A fifth grade teacher at a Parker school was detained. The school that employs her, Global Village Academy, said she was legally authorized to work in the U.S., but was detained by ICE.
She, her children, Jaramillo-Solano, and his two children were all sent to an ICE detention center that holds families in Dilley, Texas, online detention records show.
Jaramillo-Solano and the teacher's cases were cited by attorneys for the plaintiffs in court as recent examples of warrantless arrests by ICE. ICE agents don't need a warrant to detain or arrest someone in most cases, but their policy typically requires them to assess whether someone is in the country unlawfully and if they're a flight risk.
The original case, however, was filed on behalf of plaintiffs, Refugio Ramirez Ovando, Caroline Dias Goncalves, two other plaintiffs who are only identified by their initials, and "all those similarly situated," who, their attorneys say, were arrested without warrants. It alleges that "militarized" ICE agents, "often with masks, body armor, and long guns," are "indiscriminately stopping and arresting people with brown skin in their mission to meet the Administration's ramped-up enforcement demands."
At the time the lawsuit was filed, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, through a department spokesperson, said that "DHS complies with all lawful court orders and is addressing this matter with the court."
Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson said in court on Friday that he was concerned that ICE is not following its own policy guidelines. He cited statements made by White House advisor Stephen Miller that the administration has the right without reservation to pick up anyone in the country illegally.
Judge Jackson said he recognized the urgency of ruling on the case and said he will make his decision soon.
