DOJ settles claim by Des Moines ‘Dreamer’ detained by immigration despite protected status

The Department of Justice has settled a claim filed by a Des Moines man who was arrested and detained by immigration agents in 2017 despite his protected status as a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status.

The settlement does not involve a payout to 29-year-old Daniel Ramirez Medina, but requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to issue him a four-year “stay of removal” from the United States, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. During that time, Ramirez Medina can apply for other immigration status or relief from deportation.

The settlement includes a stipulation that ICE officials cannot allege that Ramirez Medina, who was born in Mexico, is a gang member or a threat to public safety — unfounded allegations that immigration officials relied on to take him into custody in the first place. In essence, the settlement is a reset for Ramirez Medina to his status before his arrest and detention.

“This settlement essentially gives Mr. Ramirez Medina a clean slate as he works to obtain legal status in the United States,” Brown said in a statement. “I am pleased that this settlement involves no monetary payment and yet goes to the core of what Mr. Ramirez Medina wants: A fair chance to obtain legal status.”

Luis Cortes, one of several attorneys representing Ramirez Medina, said his client was “ecstatic” with the settlement, which allows him to remain in the U.S. to raise his son, a U.S. citizen who is now 9 years old.

“This four-year deferral demonstrates that the government is conceding that Daniel is not a gang member and not a threat to the community,” Cortes said. “This was the main issue that my client wanted out there. It was important to him that he clear his name, for his son and for the future.”

Cortes said the four-year action deferral is renewable, and that gives Ramirez Medina time to consider his options when it comes to his future immigration status.

DACA was a plan promoted and initiated by the administration of former President Barack Obama in 2012 to offer a potential path to legal status or citizenship to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

When President Donald Trump took office in 2016, he was harshly critical of the so-called “Dreamers” Act, and his unfounded claims that many undocumented immigrants were criminals, and his promises to build a fence the length of the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico, raised fears among immigrants of a government crackdown.

The arrest of Ramirez Medina by ICE agents in Des Moines seemed to bear that out and raised a national outcry.

Immigration agents arrested him on Feb. 10, 2017, at an apartment complex where they had gone to arrest his father, a previously deported immigrant with a felony.

An immigration judge ordered him released on March 29, 2017, after questions were raised about the propriety of the ICE investigation.

Ramirez Medina, who came to the U.S. when he was 7, had no criminal record and twice passed background checks to participate in the DACA program, which allows young people brought here as children to stay in the country and work.

After his arrest, immigration officials started deportation proceedings against him after ICE officials claimed without proof that he had gang affiliations.

His case attracted national attention, as did several other DACA arrests that followed in other states. It attracted a bevy of high-profile attorneys, including the Los Angeles-based pro-bono law firm Public Counsel and Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe. They claimed Ramirez Medina’s arrest and detention violated his constitutional rights and fought to keep the case out of Immigration Court, where they said administrative law proceedings were inadequate to address fundamental constitutional claims.

In the meantime, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez — while declining at that time to release Ramirez Medina — raised questions about the “appropriateness of the government’s conduct” in ordering his arrest.

ICE agents and the agency’s spokesperson said Ramirez Medina had admitted to being a gang member.

However, briefs filed in U.S. District Court said Ramirez Medina had submitted a note to detention officials seeking to get out of the gang unit where he was being held after his arrest. According to his lawyers, the note, as written, began, “I came in and the officers said I have gang affiliation … so I wear an orange uniform.”

The lawyers said the first part of the note was erased, so it started, “I have gang affiliation …”

ICE agents also referenced a tattoo on his forearm that read “La Paz BCS.” His attorneys said the tattoo was an innocuous reference to his place of birth: La Paz, Baja California Sur.

Eventually, ICE officials were ordered by Judge Martinez to stop making those references and the settlement announced Wednesday reiterates that immigration officials cannot use any evidence or allegations made before May 15, 2018, which includes any of the ICE evidence gathered after his arrest.