DACA recipient will remain in custody until bond hearing next week; lawyers call ruling disappointing

SEATTLE -- The Des Moines man taken into custody by Immigration Customs Enforcement officers last week will remain in a federal detention center for at least another week.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Donohue refused to release Daniel Ramirez Medina immediately on Friday, saying an immigration judge should have the right to hold a bond hearing first.

Ramirez’s attorneys were hoping to avoid the bond hearing and were fighting for an immediate release.

Ramirez, 23, who was brought from Mexico to the United States illegally by his parents when he was 7, is allowed to stay in the U.S through the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

It was created by the Obama administration giving undocumented young immigrants the chance to work and go to school.

But now Ramirez faces possible deportation because the government has accused him of having gang connections, allegations he denies.

Protesters were outside the federal courthouse early Friday morning demanding his freedom.

“We are frustrated that he remains in detention for even a single hour more,” attorney Mark Rosenbaum said.

After the hearing, attorneys for Ramirez said there is much more at stake than just one man.

“This is a case that the whole nation and whole world should be watching in terms of the integrity of the word of the United States government,” Rosenbaum said.

Ramirez's entourage of attorneys says ICE had no right to arrest Ramirez in the first place. ICE agents were after Ramirez’s father, who is a felon and an undocumented immigrant, when they came across Ramirez at his father’s residence last week.

Attorneys allege ICE agents arrested Ramirez despite the fact that he had a DACA permit.

In order to get a DACA permit, a candidate has to go through a rigorous vetting process that includes a juvenile background check. Ramirez's attorneys say ICE agents had several opportunities to realize their mistake but are refusing to release Ramirez, who the government is continuing to call a threat to national security.

“This individual is as much a gang member as every one of you,” Rosenbaum said.

“There is no basis of detaining our client, it's outrageous,” attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. said.

But those arguments did not work to immediately release Ramirez.

Donohue says an immigration judge should have a crack at the case, but he did fast-track a bond hearing. Donohue asked that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the ICE agency, expedite the process and get Ramirez in front of an immigration judge sometime in the next seven days.

“We are going to consider having a hearing, we are looking into options,” Boutrous said.

One concern brought up by Ramirez’s attorney is will he be stripped of his DACA protection once an immigration judge hears the case?

Supporters say they will fight for his release and to clear his name.

“He never went out to drink, smoke, none of that stuff, he's a great guy,” friend Roger Arellano said.

Arellano added that he hired Ramirez to work in construction with him recently. He's shocked over the government's allegations that Ramirez is associated with a gang.

“That is nonsense, that's a lie, that’s a smear,” Rosenbaum said.

Rosenbaum is now questioning his client’s handwritten note. Rosenbaum is alleging government agents may have doctored the note to make his client look guilty.

“It looked like someone started to erase and saw that erasing didn’t do any good and gave up on it,” Rosenbaum said.

But DHS continues to stand by the detention, saying not only did Ramirez admit to being a gang member but that he has a tattoo to corroborate their story.

Rosenbaum says that's no proof.

“That calls into question the credibility of Homeland Security,” Rosenbaum said.

DHS says since 2012, about 1,500 DACA recipients have had their permits terminated because of a criminal conviction or gang affiliation. They believe Ramirez’s case is in line with previous cases.

There are an estimated 750,000 DACA recipients across the country.

The Mexican consul in Seattle, Roberto Dondisch, says he will be closely watching this case because it is unusual and it involves a DACA recipient. He did tell Q13 News that he did not believe that DHS was specifically targeting DACA recipients.

After the bond hearing, Ramirez’s attorneys will have the option to go back to Donohue to continue to argue their case.