A federal judge ruled on Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must release a Minneapolis man and asylum seeker who has been unlawfully detained for 50 days.
The man, identified as Elvis Joel TE in court filings, was arrested on 22 January at the height of ICE’s aggressive raids in Minneapolis. The case sparked widespread outrage as Elvis TE was detained with his two-year-old daughter while they were returning home from the store, and ICE quickly flew both of them to Texas despite a court order barring their transfer out of Minnesota.
His toddler was released to her mother the following day in response to a judge’s order, but the father, who is from Ecuador, has remained detained, even though he has a pending asylum case.
The US judge, Katherine Menendez, ruled on Friday there was no basis to keep Elvis TE in custody, saying he was “not properly detained” under the laws cited by the government.
US border patrol agents apprehended Elvis TE near Brownsville, Texas in May 2024, shortly after he crossed the border, at which point he claimed asylum, the judge wrote. He was then granted humanitarian parole, which means he was allowed to stay in the US as his asylum application moved its way through the process.
The government argued he should remain detained until his case was adjudicated, but the judge rejected those arguments, noting he was not subject to mandatory detention and agents did not have a warrant to arrest him in the first place.
The circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of a toddler were particularly cruel and unjustified, the lawyers said.
As the father and daughter were arriving home on the afternoon of 22 January, agents entered their backyard and driveway area without a warrant and broke the glass window of the father’s car while the girl was inside, one of his attorneys wrote in an affidavit.
The girl’s mother was by the door of the home and calling out to her partner, who was attempting to bring their child to her, the lawyer said. As ICE agents approached the mother, she stepped inside, and the officers allegedly refused to allow Elvis TE to “bring his daughter to her mother or the other family members waiting terrified inside the home”.
The father and toddler were then placed in an ICE vehicle, which did not have a carseat, the family’s lawyer said.
The arrest sparked protests from community members gathered outside, prompting officers to launch “crowd control measures”, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said at the time. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported at the time that agents appeared to use chemical irritants and flash-bang devices.
Soon after the arrest, lawyers filed an emergency petition demanding their release. Menendez, the Minnesota-based federal judge, issued an order that evening prohibiting the government from moving them out of state, which could impede the family’s ability to challenge their detention. The judge also ordered the girl immediately released due to the “risk of irreparable harm”, writing of the toddler: “Needless to say, she has no criminal history.”
But the government put the two on a flight to Texas about 20 minutes after the judge ruled they could not be removed, lawyers said. The government flew the two of them back to Minnesota the following day, but kept the father detained.
The judge on Friday ordered that he be released by no later than Sunday.
“Our client was torn from his family and has been unlawfully detained for 50 days and it has absolutely gutted him,” Chelsea Walcker, one of Elvis TE’s lawyers, said by phone soon after the ruling.
Walcker, chief legal officer of Groundwork Legal, a Minnesota-based public interest law firm, said “misuse of government authority was evident at every step of the case”: “They broke his car with his two-year-old daughter inside. They arrested him without a warrant. They put him on a plane in violation of a court order. Then they held him, unlawfully, without any legal basis for months, separated from his partner and daughter.”
The toll on the family was severe, Walcker said. The girl, she noted, was first separated from her mother during the chaotic arrest. When the judge ordered her released, but not her father, her lawyers had to temporarily take custody of her to bring her home.
“It was awful. She’s two. She didn’t understand what was happening. She had to be pried from her father’s arms in order to return her to mom,” Walcker said. “That will be imprinted on her for the rest of her life. That is something no child should ever have to experience.”
DHS and Department of Justice spokespeople did not immediately respond to inquiries. At the time of Elvis TE’s arrest, a DHS spokesperson called him an “illegal immigrant”, said he had been “driving erratically” and claimed that the girl’s mother had refused to take her.
Walcker expressed gratitude to the judge for recognizing the detention was unlawful, but noted: “So many other families never get this chance.”
Unlike Elvis TE, others arrested by ICE in Minnesota have been transferred out of state before they can secure representation or file a petition challenging their detention, making it significantly harder for them to fight their cases, Walcker said.
His arrest came the same week ICE detained five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, with photos of the boy being taken into custody sparking global backlash. He and his father were sent to Texas, then later released following the advocacy of a congressman.
“Families are being taken from the streets and disappeared from their workplaces and communities,” Walcker said. “Lives are being torn apart and the government must be held accountable.”
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