Federal Judge Sanctions U.S. Customs Enforcement for Misleading Court Statements
A federal judge in Boston last week imposed sanctions on U.S. Customs Enforcement (ICE) for making repeated false and misleading statements in court regarding an Ecuadorian detainee who was abruptly removed from Maine this January.
In a ruling dated May 20, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin criticized authorities for unlawfully detaining a woman without a bail hearing and for willfully neglecting her medical needs related to epilepsy. The judge’s findings come amid an increasing number of judicial reprimands directed at tough enforcement tactics employed by authorities during the Trump administration.
The Bangor Daily News reported that, as early as February, the lead local immigration official had admitted in court to providing false statements. In his 30-page order, Judge Sorokin detailed at least six instances where ICE failed to meet constitutional standards required for government agencies responsible for the health and safety of detained individuals.
Having previously ordered the woman’s release from custody, Sorokin has now prohibited investigators from rearresting her. He also directed the federal government to cover approximately $15,000 in legal fees, as noted in a filing by Julia Chatulsky, an attorney with the Pair Project, a nonprofit organization in Boston offering free legal services to detained immigrants.
The detainee, reported to be a survivor of sexual abuse and human trafficking, arrived in the United States in 2022. According to court documents, an immigration judge had previously obstructed her return to Ecuador, determining that she would likely face persecution there. She has no criminal record and has a pending asylum application.
Before her abrupt removal, the woman spent five months at Cumberland County Jail in Portland. On January 22, during a mass immigration raid in southern Maine, authorities removed all detainees from the facility. ICE initially claimed that an emergency necessitated the transfer to its Massachusetts field office. However, Judge Sorokin found this explanation lacking credibility, particularly since it followed public criticism from Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce regarding ICE’s actions.
After her release, the woman was placed in a holding cell at an ICE field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, along with numerous other women. Conditions were dire, with only one toilet and no beds available, leading to her experiencing a seizure that required medical attention. Although ICE stated that she was receiving care for her epilepsy, Sorokin described this assertion as yet another instance of false and misleading information.
Following her release, the woman was shackled and transported to Hanscom Field in Bedford, where she was flown to Louisiana without access to food, a bathroom, or her epilepsy medication. Court documents reveal that upon arrival in Louisiana, her medical needs were again neglected, resulting in multiple seizures occurring as frequently as five or six times a day.
In February, Judge Sorokin conducted a hearing to investigate whether ICE had complied with a court order preventing the transfer from Massachusetts. During this session, Brian Sullivan, the acting deputy director of ICE’s Boston field office, admitted that the documents submitted to the court were inaccurate. Despite his earlier assertions to the contrary, he acknowledged a careless approach to affidavits filed in federal court regarding critical jurisdictional facts, bringing additional scrutiny to ICE’s handling of the case.
