(WWJ) Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is pushing back against warrantless arrests by federal immigration agents.
Michigan has joined 20 other states and the District of Columbia in a federal lawsuit targeting ICE enforcement tactics.
A lower court previously ordered federal agents to stop making warrantless arrests without proving a suspect is a flight risk. Nessel argues that ignoring those legal guardrails undermines public trust in law enforcement and harms local communities.
Michigan joined the multi-state coalition in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit for the case Ramirez Ovando v. Mullin. The brief urges the appellate court to uphold a preliminary injunction previously issued by a federal district court in Colorado. That lower court issued the order after finding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers made unlawful warrantless arrests without determining whether individuals were likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained. The district court later found that ICE continued making arrests in violation of the order before federal officials appealed to the Tenth Circuit.
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 secured.
“Unlawful warrantless arrests do not make our communities safer,” said Nessel, in a statement. “They do quite the opposite, by undermining public trust in law enforcement and resulting in fewer people willing to report crimes or stand as witnesses. My office will continue to oppose the Trump administration’s attempts to play fast and loose with our immigration regulations.”
The coalition argues that requiring ICE to respect this statutory flight-risk requirement protects the public interest without interfering with lawful federal immigration enforcement. Disregarding these legal guardrails causes widespread community fallout, including reduced school attendance, business and local economic disruptions, avoidance of medical care, and diminished trust in law enforcement that makes victims and witnesses less likely to report crimes.
Joining the coalition are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
