SEATTLE _ Immigrants and civil rights attorneys have filed a petition in federal court in Seattle seeking the release of a 23-year-old Mexican immigrant brought illegally into the U.S. as a child but given a work permit under the Obama administration.
The petition challenges the immigration detention and seeks the release of Daniel Ramirez Medina, who his attorneys say was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday. The agents were conducting an action at his father's house, and Medina was detained, according to the news service Reuters and a news release by the attorneys in his case.
ICE countered in a statement Tuesday that Medina _ whom they identify as "Mr. Ramirez" _ was a "self-admitted gang member" encountered during the arrest of a felon previously deported.
He is in custody at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma "to await the outcome of removal proceedings," said ICE Northwest spokeswoman Rose Richeson.
"ICE officers took Mr. Ramirez into custody based on his admitted gang affiliation and risk to public safety," Richeson said.
Lawyers allege that Medina is the first immigration action taken by President Donald Trump's administration against someone who has been allowed to stay in the country under the Obama administration's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which deferred deportation or other adverse immigration actions against individuals who entered the U.S. illegally as children.
The lawsuit alleges Medina has been in the U.S. since he was 7 years old.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Tuesday that she is "looking into this troubling situation."
"Trust in our government depends upon the executive branch keeping its word," said Mark Rosenbaum, director of the Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles. He accused the federal government of a "bait and switch," by having them register for the DACA program and then trying to deport them.
The lawsuit prompted a quick response by the court. U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Donohue in Seattle late Tuesday issued an order requiring the government to respond to the petition by Thursday and set a hearing for Friday.
The judge ordered the government to reveal whether Medina is still detained and why, "given that he has been granted deferred action under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program?"
The judge is demanding immigration officials say whether he has been placed in "removal proceedings" to deport him as the result of ICE's initial custody determination. If not, he asks the government to explain why he is still being held. Donohue asks whether Medina has asked for or received a bond hearing.
The lawsuit alleges the government has violated Medina's due-process rights, according to a joint news release by the Public Counsel Law Center, the Barrera Legal Group and the firm of Gibson Gunn & Crutcher, a firm with offices in Los Angeles.
It seeks his immediate release and an order barring ICE from any further actions.
The detention comes on the heels of controversial ICE immigration raids following the election of President Donald Trump and his promise to deport illegal and criminal immigrants.
DACA was created by Obama and provided a reprieve from deportation for those who qualify along with renewable work permits. The lawsuit alleges Medina twice had his permit renewed before his detention. It's estimated that as many as 750,000 young people _ called Dreamers _ have taken advantage of the program.
