Federal judge who ordered no warrantless ICE arrests in Colorado asserts DOJ not complying

A federal judge in Colorado has questioned whether the Trump administration is complying with his order barring warrantless ICE arrests in the state, according to Colorado Public Radio.

Senior U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said during a hearing Wednesday that the Department of Justice appeared to be falling short of his November injunction requiring flight-risk assessments and warrants before detaining people, CPR News reported.

"These things shouldn't be that difficult," Jackson said, according to CPR.

"The policy of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was a good policy and all they have to do is comply with their own policies, and we're good," he added. "But, for whatever reason, they insisted on not agreeing to that … and here we are sitting here today. I don't get that."

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Jackson issued the injunction on Nov. 25, 2025, in a class-action lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Colorado and partner legal groups, according to a press release from the organization. The lawsuit alleged ICE agents were making arrests without judicial warrants and without determining whether individuals were both unlawfully present and likely to flee before a warrant could be obtained.

The case initially centered on four plaintiffs, including University of Utah student Caroline Dias Goncalves, who was brought to the United States from Brazil as a child, according to the ACLU. The organization said she was detained following a traffic stop and held for more than two weeks before being released.

Under the order, ICE officers may not make warrantless arrests unless they have probable cause to believe a person is in violation of immigration law and likely to escape before a warrant can be secured. In granting relief, Jackson wrote that while ICE has authority to enforce immigration laws, "in carrying out these responsibilities, [ICE agents] must follow the law," according to the ACLU.

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During Wednesday's hearing, ACLU attorneys argued that arrest records turned over to them show continuing violations of the injunction, CPR reported.

"They are in fact detaining and arresting people before they call headquarters. The arrests are being effectuated without a warrant," Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado, said, according to CPR. "All of the I-213s we submitted show ongoing violations of your order."

Macdonald added that the reports reviewed so far do not reflect documented flight-risk assessments or judicial warrants. 

"We are seeing uniform non-compliance," he said, according to CPR.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Leneis acknowledged that some arrest forms did not fully reflect the requirements set out in the court's order.

"Looking at these I-213s, it doesn't give the description of the arrest that is required by the court's order," Leneis said, according to CPR.

However, Leneis told the judge the government has taken steps since December to implement new procedures and argued that compliance has improved.

"We started with zero, we had a lot of things to get in place," he said, according to CPR. "We think the numbers now are better than they were in December."