The newer deportables: Married to Americans and more collateral arrests….

ICE is detaining immigrants married to US citizens and targeting people with prior visa problems, looking for deportables. It’s arrest-now, ask-later. But, warrantless arrests are also illegal.

Agents from different federal law enforcement agencies meet in Chicago in January to coordinate the dragnet

Photo: Christopher Dilts | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In this issue:

• The Newer Deportables: Married to Americans

• Who’s been detained

• And the US citizens mistakenly picked up

• Collateral ICE arrests that violate the Nava Settlement:

• Family ties that bind

• More countries warn citizens off visiting the US

The Newer Deportables: Married to Americans

ICE has detained immigrants married to US citizens, and they’re looking for anyone with prior visa problems, a pending immigration status, or a lack of papers. It’s all arrest-now, ask-later. The only problem is, warrantless arrests violate the Nava Settlement law requiring due process, among others.

US agents have detained some immigrants who have green cards and/or are in the legal process of resolving visas or getting green cards after marrying, USA TODAY reported Thursday. The paper spotlighted the case of Camila Muñoz, who is from Peru and had initially overstayed her visa in the US, but taken steps to fix it – and was still in that process. She’s been married for two years to Bradley Bartell, a US citizen, and step-parent to his child from an earlier relationship. She felt secure enough about her legal status to travel outside the US. Upon return to the US, she was detained.

That was a mistake, because now Trump’s ICE is criminalizing anyone with pending or unresolved visas, and going after people who are marrying Americans, just as Project 2025 promised. US officials are keen to stop citizenship-by-marriage, and end the chain of family migration. That’s a stated goal of the Project 2025 immigration reform vision, as is ending birthplace citizenship. US officials are scouring immigration and other public records for past immigration glitches. It doesn’t matter if people have taken the proper legal steps to rectify any visa issues. If it’s not resolved, they are vulnerable to ICE’s dragnet. (See our early 2024 Resisting Project 2025 project breakdown of these goals under the section “Rectify Immigration” here. It provides a fuller view of the big-picture goals of the unfolding dragnet.)

Who’s been detained:

USA Today did a recent review of national law enforcement records and found that ICE recently arrested and detained a number of people who “were in an ongoing legal immigration process and felt comfortable enough boarding a domestic flight.” Immigration agents detained them at airport checkpoints in mid-February in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Neither ICE nor DHS provided any comment. Other cases cited:

• A woman in her 50s married to a US citizen who has lived in the US over 30 years.

• A woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency (her green card), whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teenager.

• A European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21.

• A woman engaged to a U.S. green card holder, with whom she’s lived for nine years.

And the citizens mistakenly picked up….

In another case of act now-break now-don’t bother to apologize later, ICE agents arrested and detained a US citizen, Julio Noriega. Guess he looked like an illegal alien to ICE. They put him in their van and took him to an ICE processing center where he spent hours before they checked his wallet and found his ID, and realized, oops, he’s legit. Meaning, a US citizen.

Oopsie, as El Salvador’s autocrat Nayib Bukele recently tweeted in response to news that ICE officials had ignored a US federal judge’s order to stop flying ICE AIR planes packed with US deportees in chains where they are now being held in CECOT, a maximum-security prison described by human rights monitors as a torture facility, in El Salvador. Bukele made a deal with Trump. We’ll give you money or some trade incentives if you keep our deportees. Trump is now trying to expand those agreements with a half-dozen other countries. Panama and Costa Rica already took earlier planeloads of deportees. Oopsie.

Collateral ICE arrests that violate the Nava Settlement:

Noriega’s case is one of a growing roster of collateral arrests, some involving US citizens, some green card holders, some with unresolved visa cases, some who overstayed their visas and some who failed to get or seek authorization to legally live or work in the US. Lawyers for collateral arrest cases are fighting back, arguing that ICE must still follow the law as the agency seeks to arrest and remove anyone they suspect of breaching immigration laws.

Collateral arrests are cases when ICE or other US officials move to arrest one person and snag others who have the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That happened to three Guatemalan brothers, the Gregorios, in a Chicago suburb recently who were stopped by ICE agents while driving in two separate cars, as reported by ProPublica. One brother got stopped, Marco, then the other two, Jhony and Bayron, were also questioned. All three are now in ICE detention.

In this case, the three brothers lacked visas and are thus deportable, by ICE rules. Bayron had a deportation order, but the others did not. Instead, ICE wrote up warrants post-arrest for the other two brothers. That’s not right, argued lawyers for the brothers in a lawsuit that also cites 22 other cases of warrantless collateral arrests. The lawsuit did not name or contest Bayron Gregorio’s case or deportation order. Nor are they arguing the two other brothers lack o visas or working papers. But they say ICE must adhere to the law and follow the mandatory processes for removal. They didn’t in these cases.

The lawyers argued that ICE officials specifically violated a law known as the Nava settlement. It requires ICE agents to adhere to strict, specific guidelines and restrictions in any case involving a warrantless arrest.

The Nava Settlement requires ICE agents to adhere to strict and specific guidelines and restrictions in warrantless arrest cases.

The Nava rule is set to expire in May, but currently applies to Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin -- all states covered by the ICE Chicago office, said lawyers. ICE is allowed to act legally, lawyers agreed, but not illegally; ICE agents must follow the law and due process. Agents had not done that in these cases. “The creation of a warrant after the fact does not cure the warrantless nature of these incidents,” wrote attorneys for the plaintiffs, “and the Settlement’s training materials specifically forbid reliance on post hoc administrative warrants to avoid warrantless arrest requirements.”

Administration officials argued they didn’t violate Nava, but their argument did not win the day, showing their did violate the law. A court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, releasing the two Gregorio brothers and most of the other 22 migrants, who must now argue their cases in front of immigration judges. If they are required to leave, it will be via a legal process.

Family ties that bind

In another warrantless January arrest, ICE officials detained Abel Orozco-Ortega, outside of his home in Lyons, Chicago, where he’s lived with his family for 15 years. They weren’t actually looking for him, but his son, but gave no reason why. Oopsie.

They took the elder Orzoco-Ortega into custody anyway and found he lacked authorization to remain in the US. Here, too, the issue is the law around due process, not the question of people’s papers. The agents had no warrant. And, as ICE has been reminded in the above case with the Noriega brothers, that’s illegal. We still have rule of law in the United States, as much as Trump’s team strives to ignore that pesky fact.

More countries warn citizens off visiting the US:

Trump’s recent move to detain and strip international students of their visas and immigration status without warning has also prompted more governments to issue travel advisories against coming here to study or work and about the Trump administration’s new “extreme vetting” policies for anyone entering or re-entering the US. Fourteen countries have added travel warnings: the UK, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Finland, Denmark (includes embattled Greenland), Australia, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Portugal and Ireland.

As news stories of detention horrors pile up, more governments are considering doing the same. Don’t forget to check out our recent newsletter with steps to take to protect yourself and tips while traveling including for transgender travelers. We’ll keep you updated on developments.

Tomorrow, April 5: 1200+ events by 165+ groups who plan Hands Off! act of resistance in all 50 states

As of Friday morning, April 4, over 1200 Hands Off and See you in the Streets events had been registered in all 50 states by a coalition of over 165 groups. Locations and maps are listed at their websites. BLOP lists a few more events. If you’ve organized an event or action, register it so yours is added to the list and others can join you.

See you in the streets, resisters! Stay safe everyone! Make some noise! — AC