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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in urging a federal appeals court to uphold a lower court order requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to comply with statutory safeguards when making warrantless arrests.
In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Ramirez Ovando v. Mullin, the coalition argues that the preliminary injunction against ICE serves the public interest by requiring federal immigration officers to comply with existing legal guardrails. Federal law allows immigration officers to make an arrest without a warrant only when there is probable cause to believe a person is unlawfully present and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.
“Congress established specific legal requirements that ICE must meet before making a warrantless arrest, and those requirements are not optional,” said Attorney General Brown. “That is why my Office joined this coalition urging the appeals court to uphold the rule of law and keep those safeguards firmly in place.”
A federal district court in Colorado issued the preliminary injunction after finding that ICE officers had made unlawful warrantless arrests without determining whether individuals were likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained. The court later found that ICE continued making arrests in violation of the injunction. Federal officials appealed the injunction to the Tenth Circuit.
The brief emphasizes the importance of the flight-risk requirement, which prevents federal agents from making warrantless arrests without an individualized determination that a person is likely to flee. The states argue that disregarding this safeguard creates widespread consequences, including reduced school attendance, disruptions to businesses and local economies, avoidance of medical care, and diminished trust in law enforcement that can make victims and witnesses less likely to report crimes.
The coalition argues that the injunction does not interfere with lawful federal immigration enforcement. Instead, it requires immigration officers to operate within the limits Congress established and protects the public from the broader harms caused when federal agents act outside their lawful authority.
Joining Attorney General Brown in filing the brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
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