DENVER — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado is suing the Trump administration over what it calls illegal, warrantless arrests made by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of immigrants in Colorado, including Caroline Dias Goncalves.
On June 5, Dias Goncalves, a Brazilian national and University of Utah student, was stopped by a Mesa County sheriff's deputy on Interstate 70 for following a truck too closely.
Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office said Dias-Goncalves had an expired visa but no criminal history, and the deputy used a Signal group chat with other law enforcement agencies to alert ICE agents of Dias Goncalves’ location.
The deputy let Dias Goncalves go, but ICE detained her shortly afterwards. She then spent two weeks at the ICE facility in Aurora, run by The GEO Group.
Weiser filed a civil lawsuit against the Mesa County deputy for violating Colorado laws that prohibit state and local officials from assisting federal immigration enforcement.
The ACLU said Dias Goncalves' case is yet another in which ICE agents made no effort to evaluate whether she was a flight risk. If they had, they would have learned she was a scholarship student in college with a stable home and family life, according to the lawsuit.
- Read the full lawsuit below
Denver7 anchor Shannon Ogden spoke with Hans Meyer, a co-counsel in the case, about the ACLU lawsuit. He said before making an arrest, ICE is required by law to have probable cause and to have determined the person is a flight risk. ICE agents in Colorado are doing neither, according to Meyer.
"ICE is breaking the rules and breaking the law when it's going out and conducting immigration enforcement," Meyer said. "And that's why we're seeing these videos and reports showing that ICE is doing basically de facto racial profiling in communities throughout Colorado. That practice needs to stop and stop immediately."
Meyer believes this lawsuit will work to get the missing guardrails back in place for immigration agents.
"We do think that if a court steps in and forces ICE to follow the law, it will restore balance with lawful law enforcement and respect for our constitutional protections," he said.
Ogden reached out to ICE for comment on the allegations and lawsuit. He was told, "The agency does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation."
