ICE accused of continuing warrantless arrests in Oregon despite injunction

Four men testified in Oregon federal court that ICE agents detained them with few or no questions and transported them hours from home, despite a February injunction requiring warrants and flight-risk determinations before such arrests. One man, a Venezuelan national with a pending immigration application, said agents mistook him for his brother and detained him in Portland for days without checking identification. Witnesses described being pressured to sign voluntary self-deportation forms without being told what the documents meant.

An attorney for the plaintiffs class told Judge Mustafa Kasubhai the warrantless arrests reflect a push to meet administration deportation quotas, and accused ICE of making flight-risk assessments after the fact, underreporting arrests, and withholding data. A researcher testified that 574 immigration arrests occurred in Oregon between February and July, with 504 classified as noncustodial arrests, more likely to have happened without a warrant.

DOJ attorneys countered that the men all had prior arrest warrants justifying detention, and argued plaintiffs hadn't met their burden of proof. Kasubhai questioned how a previously resolved warrant could justify a new arrest without a new warrant being issued, and said at the hearing's close that ICE's document disclosures were not meeting the injunction's minimum requirements.

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