Second judge threatens feds with contempt over ICE detainees' missing property
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Another federal judge is threatening to hold government officials in contempt of court for failing to return critical items including work permits and driver's licenses to former immigration detainees.
For the second time this week, Minnesota U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen promised a judge that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would replace missing personal items taken from detainees or pay compensation to them.
U.S. District Judge John Tunheim is not threatening to hold Rosen in contempt personally, but he ordered him to appear in court Thursday afternoon after lawyers for former immigration detainees said that they’ve had difficulty communicating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office about their clients’ missing items.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan is still deciding whether to hold Rosen personally in contempt of court following a similar hearing on Tuesday that was tense at times as Rosen sparred with the judge. Throughout the day, Rosen and lawyers representing a separate group of former detainees resolved the majority of about two dozen missing property cases.
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On Thursday, Rosen was contrite and conciliatory as he promised Tunheim that the government would track down missing items or compensate the petitioners.
Attorney Claire Glenn represents a family of six asylum seekers from Venezuela, whom she says in a court filing were arrested Jan. 15 by “bounty hunters acting as agents of ICE.”
ICE released the family, including a 12-year-old boy allegedly denied his asthma inhaler while in custody, 10 days later on Tunheim’s order.
Glenn said that it took the threat of court sanctions to get the agency to return the family’s documents. She said one of her clients is still missing a work permit.
"They've been traumatized by what they've been through, and now, not having their documents puts them in a situation where they're increasingly at risk," Glenn told reporters after the hearing.
“[The permit is] either returned or it’s lost. We will continue a diligent search,” Rosen told Tunheim. “I don’t believe there’s any coercive remedy that will actually speed up that search,” the U.S. Attorney added, arguing that the government should not be held in contempt.
Attorney Joshua Rissman, who represents a roofer from Guatemala whom ICE illegally arrested in January and later released, told reporters that agents took $100 from his client along with his work permit and nail gun, items critical to his livelihood.
"They told him that they were going to destroy his nail gun,” Rissman said. “They were just going to throw it away. As to the cash, what happened? I can't say for sure. But it disappeared. And I think that's very concerning and the fact that the government doesn't seem to be very concerned that cash is going missing when you have these arrests — oftentimes violent arrests — I think that's very troubling."
Rosen told Tunheim that the roofer’s personal property records do not indicate that ICE took the man’s cash and nail gun, but “we stand by our offer” to compensate him if the items are not found.
