A federal judge in Minnesota on Thursday ordered the release of a Liberian man four days after heavily armed immigration agents stormed his home using a battering ram and arrested him.
US District Judge Jeffrey Bryan said in his ruling that the agents violated Garrison Gibson’s Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure.
“To arrest him, the Respondents forcibly entered the home of Garrison G. without his consent and without a judicial warrant,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security has been increasing immigration arrests in Minnesota in what the department has called its largest enforcement operation. DHS says its officers have arrested more than 2,500 people since November 29.
Marc Prokosch, Gibson’s lawyer, said he was “delighted” with the judge’s order. He had filed a habeas corpus petition, used by courts to determine whether an imprisonment is legal, and called the arrest a “blatant constitutional violation” since the agents did not have a proper warrant.
Gibson’s wife was inside their Minneapolis home with the couple’s 9-year-old son during the raid. Prokosch said she was very shaken by the arrest.
Gibson, 37, was being held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea after being held at a large camp on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, according to the ICE detainee locator.
DHS did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the order and did not respond to a prior email with follow-up questions about Gibson’s case.
Gibson, who fled the Liberian civil war as a child, had been ordered removed from the United States, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later thrown out by the courts. He had remained in the country legally under what is known as a supervision order, with the requirement to meet regularly with immigration authorities.
Just days before his arrest, Gibson had checked in with immigration authorities at the regional immigration offices — the same building where agents had been conducting enforcement raids in recent weeks.
Bryan said in his Thursday order that he agreed with Gibson’s assertions that since he had already been released on a supervision order, the officers “violated the applicable regulations” by not giving him sufficient notice that it had been revoked and the reasoning, as well as not providing an interview right after he was detained.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, had said that Gibson has a “long rap sheet (that) includes burglary, drug possession with intent to sell, possession of a deadly weapon, malicious destruction and theft.” She did not indicate whether those were arrests, charges or convictions.
Court records indicate that Gibson’s legal history shows only one felony in 2008, along with a few traffic violations, minor drug arrests and an arrest for driving public transportation without paying the fare.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — have been wracked by fear and anger following the killing of Renee Good, who was killed Jan. 7 during a standoff with agents. On Wednesday, a man was shot and injured by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and a broom handle.