US sheriff abused immigration 'detainer', lawsuit charges

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing a Colorado sheriff it says held a man for 47 days with no charges, no opportunity to see a judge and no opportunity to post bail, simply because federal immigration officers suspected that the man was in the U.S. in violation of federal immigration laws. "Our fundamental constitutional values prohibit depriving any person of liberty without due process of law," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado. Luis Quezada was arrested and taken to the Jefferson County Jail where he was held for three days in May 2009 for failing to appear in court on a traffic charge. He promptly resolved the traffic charge, and the county court judge ordered him released. But he was not released, because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - sent the jail an immigration detainer advising that it was investigating whether Quezada was violating immigration laws. Omar Jadwat, an attorney with the ACLU immigrants' rights project, told IPS, "Immigration detainers are inherently flawed. It is outrageous that someone could spend six weeks in jail because of nothing more than an ICE form saying that the agency wanted to investigate him." An immigration detainer instructs a jail or prison to hold a particular detainee an additional 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) after the detainee's release date. The detainer states that its purpose is to provide adequate time for ICE agents to determine whether to take the detainee into federal custody and begin formal deportation proceedings.