A federal judge in Baton Rouge has ordered that an ICE official overseeing offices across the East Coast be held in contempt for repeatedly violating court orders to respect due process.
It appears to be the first time an individual ICE official in a leadership position has been cited in contempt of court.
“The Court finds Respondents’ agent-then-Acting Field Office Director Vernon Liggins in contempt for violating the Court’s Orders,” reads the order that U.S. District Judge John deGravelles handed down on Wednesday, in a ruling that indicates the judicial branch is increasingly ready to sanction ICE and its employees for violating court orders.
On July 28, Liggins, on his last day as acting field officer in Baltimore, personally instructed his agents to detain Ibrahim Mohammed, an Ethiopian man living in Maryland. Liggins was being promoted to ICE’s acting deputy assistant director for field operations east, working out of ICE headquarters in Washington, D.C. and overseeing 10 ICE field offices on the East Coast.
Liggins gave the order to his subordinates because he wanted to tie up loose ends, noted deGravelles of the Middle District of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. The ruling comes as part of Mohammed’s habeas petition case, which his counsel filed while Mohammed was first unlawfully detained in Camp 57, the immigration unit at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Liggins was aware that Mohammed couldn’t be re-detained without due process, but he gave the instructions anyway, Liggins confirmed in testimony last month.
That day, Liggins sent 10 agents to Mohammed’s apartment, where they barged their way in by telling Mohammed that his ankle monitor was malfunctioning, a lie.
At Wednesday’s ruling, deGravelles scolded Liggins for ordering re-detention because it would speed up deportation proceedings for Mohammed. That is no justification, deGravelles said.
Counsel for ICE from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baton Rouge acknowledged that ICE had violated those orders, but argued that a contempt charge wasn’t warranted.
Due process is required for everyone in United States
Due process in this case required that if ICE re-detained Mohammed, they must give him notice of specific reasons for his re-detention, conduct an informal interview with him promptly after re-detention, and have a significant likelihood of removing him in the foreseeable future.
None of that happened.
An immigration judge previously ruled in 2024 that Mohammed cannot be deported back to Ethiopia, because he would face torture and persecution there due to his ethnicity.
So ICE has been trying for months to deport Mohammed to a third country — Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, or the Central African Republic.
But deGravelles’ April order made clear that ICE cannot deport Mohammed to a third country without first re-opening his immigration case and giving him the opportunity, in front of an immigration judge, to raise any credible fears he might have about being deported to that country. ICE also needed to first ensure that he would be accepted into the designated third country.
None of that happened.
ICE re-detained Mohammed before even nailing down which country he’d be deported to. That alone was enough to violate the court order, deGravelles said.
Without the protection of deGravelles’s court orders, Mohammed could have remained detained months or years while his immigration case proceeded. It’s also possible that an immigration judge would ultimately rule ICE can’t deport Mohammed to any of those three countries, deGravelles pointed out. That would mean Mohammed suffered “the unlawful deprivation of liberty this court sought to remedy,” the judge said.
After deGravelles issued an emergency order, ICE released Mohammed later on the same day, July 28. On Wednesday, the judge ordered ICE to pay Mohammed’s attorney’s fees and $180 for the time he lost while detained.
After repeated unlawful arrests, man has nightmares of ICE officers
The repeated unlawful detentions have affected Mohammed badly, he testified at the contempt hearing. His landlord, who was “petrified” by ICE officers showing up at the building and acting aggressively, told him he had to move out, Mohammed said.
“I’m really petrified,” he said in testimony. “I have nightmares, especially when I see the black cars.”
“Today’s decision makes it clear that ICE, like all law enforcement agencies, must follow the law,” Bridget Pranzatelli, Mohammed’s counsel with the National Immigration Project, wrote in a text. “By repeatedly detaining Mr. Mohammed in violation of clear court orders, due process, and federal law, ICE acted unlawfully,”
As the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign reaches its 20th month, fed-up federal judges appear increasingly ready to hand down sanctions over ICE’s repeated violations of court orders. Last year, a Boston judge held an individual ICE agent in contempt. In March, a Minnesota judge held five people, including then-DHS secretary Kristi Noem and three ICE officials, in civil contempt, but noted the court did not know who was directly responsible for the violation. Earlier this month, a judge in California gave contempt citations to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has authority over ICE, while a Maryland judge held ICE in contempt.
DeGravelles concluded the hearing by warning that he was ready to escalate sanctions if needed.
“Respondents are reminded of their obligations to abide fully and strictly by this court’s orders,” the judge said. “Should there be any further violations, additional and more serious sanctions will be issued by this court.”
