A federal judge in Minnesota on Thursday ordered the release of a Liberian man, four days after heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram to break into his home and arrest him.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan said in his ruling that the agents violated Garrison Gibson’s Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful searches and seizures.
“In order to arrest him, the defendants forced entry into Garrison G.’s home without his consent and without a judicial warrant,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security has been ramping up immigration arrests in Minnesota in what the department is calling its largest enforcement operation. The Department of Homeland Security said its officers have arrested more than 2,500 people since Nov. 29.
Gibson’s attorney, Mark Prokosh, said he was “thrilled” by the judge’s order. He had filed a habeas corpus petition, which the court uses to determine whether the incarceration was legal, and called the arrest a “blatant violation of the Constitution” because the agents did not have a proper warrant.
Gibson’s wife and their 9-year-old child were at their home in Minneapolis during the raid. Prokosh said she was deeply shocked by the arrest.
Gibson, 37, was being held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea after being held at a large camp at Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, Texas, according to ICE’s detainee locator.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment on the order, nor did it respond to an earlier email containing follow-up questions about Gibson’s case.
Gibson fled Liberia’s civil war as a child and was later ordered to leave the United States, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed by the courts. He remains in the country legally under a so-called supervision order, which requires him to meet regularly with immigration authorities.
Just days before his arrest, Gibson checked in with immigration authorities at the regional immigration office — the same building where agents had been conducting law enforcement raids in recent weeks.
Bryan said in Thursday’s order that he agreed with Gibson’s assertion that because he had been released under a supervision order, officers “violated applicable regulations” by failing to provide him with adequate notice that the supervision order had been revoked and why, and by failing to provide an interview immediately after he was taken into custody.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said Gibson “has a lengthy criminal record that includes robbery, possession of drugs with intent to sell, possession of a deadly weapon, vandalism and theft.” She did not say whether those were arrests, charges or convictions.
Court records show Gibson’s legal history shows only one felony conviction in 2008, in addition to several traffic violations, minor drug arrests and an arrest for unpaid fares on public transportation.
Fear and anger have gripped the Twin Cities, the latest target of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign, after Renee Good was fatally shot during a confrontation with agents on Jan. 7. A man was shot and wounded on Wednesday by an immigration officer who attacked him with a shovel and a broom handle.
