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In other news from federal courts, judges are ruling against the administration's practice of sweeping up people suspected of being in the country illegally. The decisions are in lawsuits challenging these warrantless arrests. Colorado Public Radio's Allison Sherry reports.
ALLISON SHERRY, BYLINE: In June, college student Caroline Dias Goncalves was pulled over by local police in western Colorado for following a truck too closely. Then a few miles down the road, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled her over again and arrested her, detaining her for more than two weeks. She spoke with ABC4 News in Utah.
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CAROLINE DIAS GONCALVES: I don't even know how to explain what it's like being in there.
SHERRY: There was no warrant out for Goncalves. She was arrested because local police told ICE they suspected she's in the country illegally. These kinds of collateral arrests have become standard practice under the Trump administration, like a high-profile raid of several metro Denver apartment complexes in February, which then-acting ICE director Caleb Vitello spoke about on X.
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CALEB VITELLO: And this is something that is just going to continue. As long as there are bad guys in the streets, we're going to be out here.
SHERRY: Among the dozens arrested that day without warrants there was JST. He's seeking asylum from Mexico because he says it's dangerous to be gay and HIV positive there. A judge determined ICE didn't assess whether JST would be a flight risk. He says he's been here for more than 15 years and is supporting his nieces. Colorado, he says, is where his life is.
JST: (Speaking Spanish).
SHERRY: JST, who we are identifying by his initials because he fears being targeted again, was on his way to the job he had at a grocery store for nine years when he was arrested. He was held in detention for nearly a month.
JST: (Speaking Spanish).
SHERRY: He said he cried a lot. In October, the ACLU of Colorado sued over Goncalves and JST and thousands of other warrantless arrests and detentions of people in Colorado suspected of being in the country illegally. Tim Macdonald is ACLU of Colorado's legal director.
TIM MACDONALD: So what we're seeing is ICE engaging in these kind of shortcuts that violate the law. And they're doing it because it's easier. But due process matters.
SHERRY: Last week, a federal judge in Colorado agreed, issuing a preliminary injunction telling ICE no more collateral arrests or detention without flight risk evaluations and warrants. The ruling only applies to Colorado, but the ACLU has won similar suits in Illinois, California and D.C. After the ruling, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman called it a, quote, "brazen effort to hamstring the Trump administration from fulfilling the president's mandate to deport the worst of the worst criminal aliens." But lawyers across the country challenging warrantless arrests are grateful for the recent court wins in four jurisdictions. ACLU's Tim Macdonald says it feels like a game of Whac-A-Mole, though, as ICE just moves the same conduct to another state.
MACDONALD: It should disturb and shock us that our own government had a policy and practice of violating the law. That's what the judge found.
SHERRY: Ultimately, attorneys say they hope ICE gets the message after multiple judges have found that there is plain language in the law banning their practices. The Trump administration has appealed the Illinois ruling, but no other appeals have been filed in Colorado or other states as of now.
For NPR News, I'm Allison Sherry in Denver.
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