Yet ICE continued to press its case against Ramirez. In immigration court, agents rested their case on one piece of evidence: a tattoo on Ramirezs forearm that consists of a nautical star and the words La PazBCS, which represent his birthplace, the city of La Paz in Baja California Sur. Ramirez repeatedly insisted that this tattoo had nothing to do with any gang. But an ICE agent claimed that his tattoo actually proved he was definitely a gang member because it allegedly looked like the tattoo of the bulldogs gang. (It does not.)
Two different immigration judges found no indication that Ramirez was gang affiliated or a threat to public safety. Martin Flores, a gang expert who has consulted in more than 700 cases, testified that he had never seen a gang member with a similar tattoo nor would [he] attribute this tattoo to have any gang-related meaning. Another gang expert, Edwina Barvosa, declared that there is no apparent evidence that [Ramirez] has ever been a gang member himself. Carlos García, a Mexican researcher who has studied gangs extensively, stated that this tattoo does not show any gang affiliation. But ICE still insisted that Ramirez was a gang member, and thus eligible for deportation.
Martinez, a George W. Bush appointee, was plainly incensed by the agencys lies. ICEs conclusory findings, he wrote, have been contradicted by experts and other evidence. The government produced no evidence to contradict multiple experts testimony discrediting ICEs bizarre interpretation of Ramirezs tattoo. And its claims are completely contradictory to the governments own previous findings after extensive background checks that were meant to uncover evidence of known or suspected gang association.
Most troubling to the Court, Martinez continued, is the continued assertion that Mr. Ramirez is gang-affiliated, despite providing no evidence specific to Mr. Ramirez to the Immigration Court in connection with his administrative proceedings, and offering no evidence to this Court to support its assertions four months later.
Martinez concluded that ICE had violated Ramirezs rights by depriving him of his constitutionally protected liberty and property interests without due process of law. The judge also found that ICE had violated federal law by stripping Ramirez of his DACA status in an arbitrary and capricious manner without any rational explanation for its decision. Accordingly, he barred the government from terminating Ramirezs DACA benefits, shielding his right to continue living and working in the U.S. And he prohibited the government from asserting, adopting, or relying in any proceedings on any statement or record
purporting to allege or establish that Mr. Ramirez is a gang member, gang affiliated, or a threat to public safety. In other words, he ordered ICE to stop lying.
This decision marks the second time in recent weeks that a court has found that immigration agents have made misrepresentations to a court. In early May, a New Hampshire judge held that Customs and Border Protection officers had lied about a dragnet it set up in the state, claiming that it was designed to catch undocumented immigrants when it was really meant to catch drug users. Now a federal judge has ruled that ICE essentially slandered a young Dreamer to concoct the pretext necessary to deport him. There will be likely be no consequences for individual ICE agents given their broad immunity from lawsuits. But the courts, it seems, are starting to catch wise: Trumps immigration forces, much like Trump himself, simply cannot be trusted.
