Denver immigration attorneys say federal agents are still hauling people off Colorado streets without warrants, despite a judge’s order telling them to knock it off.
In a 98-page amended complaint filed Wednesday, lawyers for immigrants accuse U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of continuing warrantless arrests across the state in defiance of a federal court’s November ruling. The new filing broadens an ongoing class-action case, adds the East Colfax Community Collective as a plaintiff, and alleges agents have stopped and detained people without the required individualized flight-risk assessments. Attorneys say the complaint details roadside box-ins, detention at the Aurora facility, and unresolved bond repayment claims that, taken together, show a wider pattern. They are asking the court to lock in permanent, class-wide protections.
Amended Complaint Piles On New Incidents, New Plaintiff
The amended complaint, filed by the ACLU of Colorado along with the Meyer Law Office and Olson Grimsley, alleges that immigration agents kept making warrantless arrests in Colorado after a November injunction, according to The Colorado Sun.
Judge’s November Ruling Set Tight Rules for Warrantless Arrests
U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson’s November 25 preliminary injunction allows ICE officers to arrest someone without a warrant in Colorado only if they have probable cause that the person is unlawfully present and that the person is likely to flee before a warrant can be obtained, as reported by The Associated Press. The order also requires agents to put those flight-risk findings on a specific form and to give a random subset of those records to plaintiffs’ lawyers for review, according to the case summary and docket at the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse.
Complaint Details Roadside Box-Ins and Bond Disputes
Lawyers outline a string of recent arrests that they say break those rules. On Christmas Eve, an asylum seeker identified as R.J.R.P. was allegedly boxed in and arrested while driving to work. In late December, three men heading to a cemetery job in Bennett were stopped and jailed. And on January 21, ICE agents allegedly boxed in and arrested two brothers and their cousin near Vail. The amended complaint also says ICE has not reimbursed three plaintiffs for bond money and recounts that Caroline Dias Goncalves spent 15 days in detention in Aurora and paid a $2,000 bond. Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue the pattern contradicts ICE’s claim of careful, individualized decisions and has left residents and advocates “deeply concerned,” according to The Colorado Sun.
Arrests Spike, Fewer With Prior Convictions
Public records compiled by the Deportation Data Project show ICE arrested at least 3,522 people in Colorado between January 20 and October 15, 2025, up from 843 in the same period in 2024. Over that span, the share of arrestees with prior criminal convictions dropped from 61% to 37%, as reported by KUNC. Plaintiffs point to those figures as evidence that enforcement sweeps are wide-ranging and often pull in people with no criminal history.
What Plaintiffs Want, and What Comes Next
Plaintiffs are asking the court to turn the preliminary injunction into permanent, class-wide relief, tighten documentation and oversight of arrests, and order repayment of bond costs and removal of monitoring for some people, according to an ACLU of Colorado statement. Defendants filed a notice of appeal of the November 25 order on January 23, and the case remains active on the federal docket as both sides prepare further motions and briefs, according to the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Upcoming filings will determine whether the injunction is narrowed, expanded, or put on hold while the appeal plays out.
