Federal judge orders ICE to release worker arrested at hotel housing agents

An employee of a hotel that is housing federal immigration enforcement agents has to be released after he was picked up at work last week, a federal judge has ruled.

Court documents state that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been staying at the Hilton Homewood Suites in St. Louis Park, where a Nicaraguan citizen and U.S. refugee is employed. Documents state that the man has a valid work permit and applied for permanent U.S. legal status, although that application is still pending.

Homeland Security officials had previously informed the man’s boss at the hotel that he wouldn’t be detained if he reported to work, and said they were aware of his legal status, the filings add.

However, on Jan. 19, ICE agents arrested the man at the hotel.

His lawyer asked the court to order his release, noting he’d committed no crime, wasn’t a suspect, and was taken into custody without any warrant.

A federal judge, the next day, ordered federal authorities to show cause for the man’s arrest and told Homeland Security not to move the man outside Minnesota. Despite that order, a lawsuit states that ICE moved the man to a camp in Texas and didn’t immediately return him, as ordered.

The judge, on Saturday, ordered ICE to immediately release the man.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to Homeland Security for comment, but hasn’t yet heard back.
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