Seattle judge won’t release ‘Dreamer’
Case stirs protests of immigration policy
SEATTLE — Lawyers for detained “Dreamer” Daniel Ramirez Medina went to court Friday seeking his immediate release and calling his arrest in a Des Moines apartment unconstitutional. A federal magistrate ruled he wasn’t empowered to free Ramirez without giving an immigration judge a “first crack.”
But in a case that he said had far-reaching implications about federal policy regarding Dreamers, Chief Magistrate Judge James Donohue took the unusual step of requiring that a bond hearing in immigration court be held within a week.
U.S. District Court does not usually exercise authority over the immigration court system.
Lawyers and supporters of Ramirez said they were disappointed the 23-year-old would not be freed, but took heart in the call for an expedited schedule.
Mark Rosenbaum, a Los Angeles attorney helping to represent Ramirez, also noted that the magistrate said that if immigration court does not hold a hearing within a week, Ramirez’s attorneys could come back to his courtroom.
The magistrate also set a briefing schedule to consider whether the federal court has jurisdiction to consider the merits of the case. The government has argued that it doesn’t, and that Ramirez’s removal proceedings belong only in immigration court.
After the hearing on the courthouse steps, where people demonstrated support for Ramirez and spilled into the street, his lawyers talked to reporters.
“Daniel is just like me,” said Luis Cortes Romero, a Kentbased attorney who is himself a Dreamer.