Federal judge in Denver declares ICE no-bond policy illegal, orders release of Colorado man
In a case challenging a new Trump administration policy that denies bond hearings to immigrant detainees, a federal judge in Denver declared that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was violating immigration law and denying the due process rights of a Colorado man.
The judge ordered the immediate release of Nestor Gutierrez, originally from El Salvador, and living in Colorado for more than twenty years. He had been detained by ICE at the GEO facility in Aurora since May.
Prior to this past July, the mandatory detention policy set forth by ICE was generally limited to recent border-crossers and noncitizens convicted of certain crimes.
ICE said in July that the new no-bond policy intends to enforce immigration law "as it was actually written to keep America safe."
But attorneys for Gutierrez argued that detaining him -- the main provider for his family -- was causing irreparable harm, and that the new interpretation of the law by ICE is wrong.
Immigration attorney Hans Meyer said the ruling helps protect the balance of power in the U.S.
"ICE, you're not allowed to just reinterpret the law illegally in some way that you want it to read," Meyer said. "When 'A' you agreed for three decades that it doesn't read that way. And almost every single jurist in the United States of America has agreed with our position. ICE is trying to meet a mass deportation agenda. That's why they're doing it. It's not because it has a legitimate, intellectually honest interpretation of the law that's new or different."
In her ruling, the judge said that the government does not have an unfettered right to detain noncitizens.
An ICE spokesperson tells CBS News Colorado that because the "no-bond" policy is under litigation in other jurisdictions, he cannot comment.
The judge's order called for Gutierrez's immediate release until he receives a bond hearing before an immigration judge, at which the government bears the burden of justifying that he is dangerous or a flight risk.
Meyer is working with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado to try to certify the Gutierrez case as a class-action lawsuit. This would allow many individuals with similar claims of civil rights violations to sue as one group.
The ACLU and Meyer will be back in federal court to argue for certification in November.
