PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — A federal magistrate judge has held three senior administration officials in civil contempt after immigration agents arrested a man who had already won a court order requiring his release from detention, according to a Courthouse News Service account of the ruling reported on Monday, October 26.

Source: Courthouse News Service, via AfrAm News

U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Maureen Kelly issued the ruling in the case of Nain Vasquez Gonzalez. The order names Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and John Rife, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Philadelphia Field Office. The officials were ordered to pay Gonzalez's attorney fees and related costs.

Kelly found that the Department of Homeland Security's June 26 arrest of Gonzalez was “unauthorized and unlawful,” according to the Courthouse News Service account. Gonzalez was held for approximately 11 hours before being released.

The arrest came about two months after Gonzalez obtained court-ordered habeas relief from immigration detention. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had found that his detention had become unconstitutionally prolonged. Kelly's ruling said Gonzalez spent more than three years in immigration custody, much of that time because the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to comply with appellate mandates.

Two accounts of the June 26 arrest

Gonzalez said agents asked whether he was another person, did not accept his denial and declined to examine his identification. Government filings, by contrast, said officers were searching for targets during a nationwide enforcement surge and believed Gonzalez resembled one of them. Officials also said agents used a photograph and facial-recognition software on mobile devices.

What is solid

  • A federal magistrate judge held Blanche, Mullin and Rife in civil contempt on October 26 and ordered them to pay Gonzalez's attorney fees and costs, per the Courthouse News Service account of the ruling.
  • The June 26 arrest was held for about 11 hours before release, and Kelly called the arrest “unauthorized and unlawful.”
  • Gonzalez had previously spent more than three years in immigration custody and had won habeas relief about two months before the June arrest.

What is only claimed

  • Why agents seized Gonzalez: he says agents would not accept his denial or check his ID; government filings say officers believed he resembled a target sought during a nationwide enforcement surge and used a photo and mobile facial-recognition software.

Civil contempt is a court's tool to enforce its own orders, and a finding against named cabinet-level officials is an unusual step in the running legal fight over immigration enforcement and detention. No response from the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security or ICE to Monday's ruling was reported in the account available at publication time.