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Protesters gathered Friday outside the Seattle federal courthouse where a “dreamer” arrested a week before was expected to make his first appearance.
Protesters gathered Friday outside the Seattle federal courthouse where a “dreamer” arrested a week before was expected to make his first appearance.
Protesters gathered Friday outside the Seattle federal courthouse where a “dreamer” arrested a week before was expected to make his first appearance.
Daniel Ramirez Medina, of the Seattle suburb Des Moines, was arrested last Friday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers looking for his father. Ramirez, who came to the United States as a child, has twice been approved for President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, allowing him to work and not fear deportation, according to documents filed in court. He has no criminal record.
DACA recipients are often referred to as “dreamers,” a name given them during a failed effort to give them permanent legal status through the DREAM Act. Ramirez and hundreds of thousands of other U.S. residents brought to the country illegally as children came forward during the Obama years and now face an uncertain future.
Ramirez, 23, appeared in U.S. District Court at Seattle on Friday morning for a preliminary hearing challenging his arrest.
he arrests of hundreds of immigrants last week marked the first large-scale raid under the Trump administration — but the crackdown was, by all indications, just the start of much more to come. The expansive executive order signed by Donald Trump last month allows a significantly broader population of immigrants to be picked up for deportation.
Court documents filed challenging Ramirez’s detention argued the ICE officers gave no reason for his arrest, other than saying he wasn’t “born in this country.”
But ICE rebutted that claim in statements and court documents, saying that Ramirez Medina told officers he had been associated with gang members but didn’t hang around them anymore.
Ramirez’s attorneys argued that the government failed to provide any evidence of the gang ties or Ramirez’s admission to them.
“It is a blatant falsehood that defames this young man, I suppose, to justify what was a mistake at the beginning,” said Mark Rosenbaum, one of the man’s attorneys, of the 23-year-old’s arrest and detention by immigration agents last week.
He has been held at Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma since Friday.
Rosenbaum said the federal allegations were false and that authorities misidentified the one tattoo on Ramirez’s body.
“Mr. Ramirez did not say these things because they are not true,” Rosenbaum said. “And while utterly implausible and wholly fabricated, these claims still would not be sufficient evidence that Mr. Ramirez is a threat to the public safety or national security.”
About 750,000 people are protected from deportation and eligible for work permits under Obama’s DACA program. President Donald Trump, who has taken a hard line against illegal immigration, has indicated he may end the program, though he hasn’t made clear whether he would deport protectees or allow them to stay.
Rosenbaum also accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of doctoring a form filled out by Ramirez asking to be transferred out of the gang unit at the detention center. Ramirez wrote on the paper that he is not a member of a gang and that’s he’s never been involved in gang activity, Rosenbaum said. But when Ramirez was denied the move and got a copy of the paper back, Rosenbaum said, some of the words had been erased, making the statement appear as though Ramirez had written that he was in a gang.
“You can see that there are words that have been erased. That is serious and criminal conduct,” Rosenbaum said.
The government has also given varying accounts of where and when Ramirez allegedly talked to agents about gang involvement, Rosenbaum said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Ramirez was being held at a detention center in Tacoma pending deportation proceedings. The statement said participants can have their status revoked if they’re found to pose a threat to national security or public safety.
About 1,500 immigrants granted DACA status since 2012 have had it revoked because of criminal convictions or gang affiliations.
This report contains information from The Associated Press.
Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, business and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay.
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