CHARLOTTE — With all these immigration arrests, you may be wondering whether a judge will order hundreds to be released, like one judge in Chicago did.
Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke explains that what happened in Chicago stems from a case called Castanon Nava, a few years ago. People sued ICE, and both sides settled in 2022.
In the consent decree, ICE agreed to follow certain rules nationwide, including here in the Carolinas.
For example, suppose officers arrest someone without a warrant. In that case, they must have probable cause to believe that the person is in the U.S. illegally and is likely to escape while officers obtain a warrant.
Officers also agreed to document more information on I-213 forms, including how they identified themselves, the reason they felt they couldn’t wait for a warrant, where they arrested the person, that person’s ties to the community, and whether the person lives there, works there, or something else.
But the Castanon Nava case did something else. It focused on ICE’s Chicago office specifically. It gave immigrants extra protection in the six states that those officers cover.
“It was actually a class action. They were [members] of a class that was defined geographically and for a time period,” Charlotte immigration attorney Steven Meier said.
So, they have the same rights as people here, but with more recourse if they’re arrested.
And that’s the legal foundation on which the judge in Chicago released so many people there recently. (The Castanon Nava consent decree expires in February 2026.)
So, bottom line, you may see people in the Charlotte area released on an individual basis, but probably not hundreds at a time.
“What is unlikely is that we’re going to see what happened in Chicago, where 600 [cases] were just thrown out summarily,” Meier said.
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