Immigration judge finds ICE committed egregious constitutional violations in SF home raid

Advocates: Ruling underscores trend of agency overstepping its bounds, suggests pattern of abuse in same division that detained Steve Li

 San Francisco – In a pivotal decision, a federal Immigration Court ruled on March 2 that agents from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Fugitive Operations Team violated basic constitutional protections when they entered a San Francisco home without a warrant during a January 2009 raid. As a result of the agents’ unlawful conduct, the Immigration Court ended deportation proceedings against three of the San Francisco residents swept up in the raid. Highlights of the case are provided below, and redacted copies of the Court’s ruling are available upon request.

“The decision protects the right of all people in the United States to be free from unreasonable government searches and seizures inside their own home,” said Francisco Ugarte, the attorney who litigated the case on behalf of the community members swept up in the raid.  “The decision also calls into question ICE practices of bursting into community members’ homes without warrants and without consent.  ICE Fugitive Teams should be put on notice that its coercive conduct will not be tolerated.”

Last week’s ruling marks the second time in recent months that the actions of ICE’s “Fugitive Operations” department’s have been called into question in San Francisco.  This is the same division of ICE which raided the home of SF City College nursing student Steve Li last September. Li’s detention and near-deportation sparked a widely publicized community outcry; last November, Senator Feinstein intervened on his behalf.

Highlights of Case:

On January 29, 2009, at approximately 6:45 a.m., five armed ICE Agents from an ICE Fugitive Operation Team entered a private home on Sutter St. in San Francisco, California.  Their target, named “Elmer,” no longer lived at the residence.  ICE agents waited outside the home, detained the first person who left the building, and then rushed inside the home, detaining and interrogating everyone else inside.  The Judge found that ICE agents did not have valid consent to enter the home.  Because ICE agents used coercive tactics to enter, the Judge suppressed evidence and terminated removal proceedings. The judge also questioned whether ICE could obtain voluntary consent to enter a home by misrepresenting themselves as local police officers. 

Troubling Accusations: In recent years, ICE “Fugitive” Teams have come under intense scrutiny for their unconstitutional practices. According to internal memos, as well as published reports from the New York Times, Cardozo Law Clinic, and Migration Policy Institute, ICE Fugitive agents had been under pressure to meet arrest quotas of 1,000 arrests per year per team—this number was confirmed during testimony.  ICE currently maintains 104 Fugitive Teams throughout the country. In 2008, Fugitive Operation Teams received approximately $218 million dollars in funding, a 23 fold increase from 2003. 

“ICE is clearly stepping beyond its bounds, and countless families are being broken up in the process. This ruling shows that ICE’s overzealous pursuit of quotas is undermining cherished constitutional freedoms. This disturbing pattern of abuses underscores the urgent need to repair the nation’s broken immigration system so that it upholds basic values like due process ” said Eric Quezada, Executive Director of Dolores St. Community Services. “

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