Garland Creedle is a United States Citizen who was arrested in Miami. While he was being jailed, ICE issued a detainer on him. The jail held him even though he had posted bail and should have been freed. He was later released without being turned over to ICE. This unlawful detention of an American at the request of ICE is now the subject of a lawsuit.
The unlawful detention by Miami/Dade County is a violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of Garland Creedle. Someone can only be detained if there is probable cause, and there was no probable cause in this case. The New York Times spoke to his lawyer:
“It goes to show just how sloppy this is,” said Rebecca Sharpless, a lawyer representing Mr. Creedle and the head of the University of Miami Law School’s immigration clinic. “What immigration does is check a box on a boilerplate form saying they have probable cause to hold someone in custody, and that is supposed to be constitutionally sufficient to detain them.”
“That’s what we’re saying is wrong,” she said…
“Hundreds of jurisdictions have decided that they don’t unquestioningly comply with ICE detainers,” Ms. Wang [of the ACLU] said. “It buys them into lawsuits and forces them to violate people’s rights. And that is anathema to our system of constitutional liberties.”
