ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Three immigrants backed by an advocacy group are suing a northwestern New Mexico county for detaining them in jail on immigration holds.
According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, each of the three immigrants were stopped on different occasions for minor traffic violations by the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and held unlawfully while federal officials checked their immigration status.
“Instead of being ticketed and let go, I was detained until an immigration officer could come to the scene and arrest me for being undocumented,” said Ricardo Olivas, 22, a landscaper who was stopped in July for not having registration on a work trailer. Olivas said authorities then took him to El Paso where he stayed in detention for two months until he was given a one-year permit.
The two other detainees also were later released and now live in the country legally, advocates said.
The Santa Fe-based group Somos un Pueblo is also a plaintiff in the suit.
The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
Earlier this year, immigration attorneys warned New Mexico counties that they could face litigation from inmates kept in custody for no other grounds than receiving a hold request from federal immigration authorities.
Lawyers said the immigrant holds amounted to false imprisonment.
San Juan County Sheriff Ken Christesen, who was named in the lawsuit, said he didn’t believe his deputies did anything wrong and his office will continue to do its job. “If we stop you and you have committed a crime you will be detained,” Christesen said.
Until earlier this year, it was common for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to ask counties to hold individuals brought in for traffic violations if the individuals were suspected of not having proper immigration documents.
Recently, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - covering three states on the East Coast - ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania inmate who sued after the Lehigh County jail refused to release him after he posted bail, based on an immigration hold.
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