Judge Orders DHS to Free Key ICE Shooting Witness Within 48 Hours
Updated
Updated · KTRK-TV · Jul 28
Judge Orders DHS to Free Key ICE Shooting Witness Within 48 Hours
3 articles · Updated · KTRK-TV · Jul 28
Summary
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ordered DHS to release Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego within 48 hours, in a public place, with his lawyers notified at least three hours in advance.
Ellison said the government cannot hold noncitizens without individualized justification solely because they entered unlawfully; the order also requires DHS to seek a pre-detention hearing before trying to detain him again.
Rojas Pliego is one of the only known witnesses to the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo because the ICE officers involved had no body cameras or dashcams.
His account and another passenger's dispute federal officials' version of events, saying agents rammed Salgado Araujo's van before opening fire.
The ruling follows Ellison's earlier block on Rojas Pliego's deportation, while two other detained witnesses have filed similar petitions and DHS had not commented.