Judge orders release of Liberian man arrested in Minneapolis raid

Summary expanded

A federal judge in Minnesota ordered the release of a Liberian man arrested in Minneapolis by heavily armed immigration agents who entered his home with a battering ram, according to a court order reported Thursday. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan ruled that the arrest violated the man’s constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure.

Bryan’s order said the agents forcibly entered Garrison Gibson’s home without his consent and without a judicial warrant. “To arrest him, Respondents forcibly entered Garrison G.’s home without his consent and without a judicial warrant,” Bryan said in the ruling, according to court documents discussed in the report.

Gibson, 37, was held after the arrest in immigration detention, with his location listed as Albert Lea, Minnesota, in an ICE detainee locator. The report said Gibson had previously been held at a large camp on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, before being transferred to Minnesota.

Gibson’s attorney, Marc Prokosch, said he was “thrilled” by the judge’s order. Prokosch said he filed a habeas corpus petition—used by courts to challenge whether imprisonment is lawful—and he called the arrest “a blatant constitutional violation,” describing it as stemming from agents not having a proper warrant.

The report said Gibson’s wife was inside the Minneapolis home with the couple’s 9-year-old child during the raid, and that Prokosch said she was “deeply shaken” by the arrest. The judge’s order addressed the government’s detention and arrest timeline, including Gibson’s immigration status and what officials told him after taking him into custody.

According to the report, Gibson had been under an order of supervision, which required him to meet regularly with immigration authorities. The report said Gibson had checked in with immigration authorities days before his arrest at regional immigration offices—the same building where agents had been staging enforcement raids in recent weeks.

Bryan said in the Thursday order that, because Gibson had already been released on supervision, officials violated applicable regulations by not giving him enough notice that the supervision had been revoked. The report also said Bryan cited a failure to provide Gibson an interview right after he was detained.

The report said the Department of Homeland Security has been ramping up immigration arrests in Minnesota and described it as the department’s largest enforcement operation. DHS said its officers have arrested more than 2,500 people since Nov. 29.

A spokesperson for the department, Tricia McLaughlin, was cited as saying Gibson has “a lengthy rap sheet” that includes robbery, drug possession with intent to sell, possession of a deadly weapon, malicious destruction and theft. The report said McLaughlin did not clarify whether those items were arrests, charges, or convictions, while court records cited in the report indicated Gibson’s felony conviction history included only a 2008 drug case that was later dismissed by the courts.

The decision came as the Twin Cities faced heightened tensions around immigration enforcement following the killing of Renee Good, who was shot on Jan. 7 during a confrontation with agents. The report said another man was shot and wounded on Wednesday by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and broom handle.