ICE Condemned for ‘Police State’ Tactics

Newsweek - A federal judge has issued a scathing attack on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), describing aspects of its arrest practices as resembling “police state” tactics and warning of serious constitutional concerns. The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Dora L. Irizarry of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, centers on the detention of an individual on Long Island and ultimately orders the person’s release.

In the opinion, the judge, a George W. Bush-era Republican appointee, points to what she describes as troubling enforcement practices, including the use of after-the-fact documentation to justify arrests, which the judge said raised serious due process concerns.

According to the court, ICE officers arrested the individual without a judicial warrant and later relied on paperwork that appeared to have been prepared after the arrest to justify the detention. The judge said this sequence raised serious questions about whether the government had complied with statutory and constitutional requirements at the time of the arrest. In unusually forceful language, the judge compared such practices to “police state” tactics.