Coconino County Jail Detainee Sues Over Allegedly Unlawful ICE Hold

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The sheriff and jail commander of Coconino County, Arizona have been hit with a proposed class action filed by a man who claims his detention has been unconstitutionally prolonged due to the defendants’ compliance with an ICE detention request and warrant.

The plaintiff, the suit says, was arrested on December 28, 2018 on a warrant for failure to appear in court. On January 2, the case continues, the Flagstaff Municipal Court set the conditions of his release – the payment of a $200 cash bond – and assigned a hearing date of January 16. Nevertheless, the suit alleges the plaintiff is still being held at the jail despite not being charged with any crime. The complaint traces the man’s allegedly unlawful hold to documents received by the Coconino County jail from ICE that requested his detention absent any “judicial warrant or probable cause of a crime,” in violation of Arizona law. The documents – an immigration detainer and a warrant of removal/deportation – were signed by an immigration officer, the suit says, and were not reviewed by a judge or magistrate with authority to extend the man’s detention.

According to the case, the defendants maintain a practice of improperly holding detainees who are suspected of being in the United States without lawful immigration status for up to 48 hours after they’ve already satisfied their conditions of release. “This policy of delayed release allows ICE sufficient time to take custody of the detainee,” the complaint explains, despite that the prolonged detention “exceeds Defendants’ state law authority.”