At a commercial truck inspection station and near toll booths on Interstate 77, West Virginia officials have helped to detain immigrants and turned them over to ICE, who confined them for weeks in jail.
In late January, state leaders touted large-scale arrests of 650 immigrants by ICE officers and over a dozen local law enforcement agencies.
“I want to thank the men and women of ICE for their outstanding partnership with various state entities, including the State Police, and their tireless work here in West Virginia,” said Gov. Patrick Morrisey in an ICE press release.
But over the last month, dozens of immigrants picked up by ICE have been ordered released.
Now, state officials seem less eager to talk about a string of federal court rulings declaring ICE’s activity in West Virginia in flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Morrisey mum on ICE’s constitutional violations
Federal judges have repeatedly ruled that ICE is violating the due process rights of immigrants by holding them without a hearing in the state jail system run by Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s administration.
We had questions for the governor, and for other state officials who enabled ICE as it scooped up hundreds of people along West Virginia highways and in our state’s communities — as it turns out, often indiscriminately and in clear violation of long-established constitutional standards that protect even noncitizens.
Was Morrisey, a Rutgers law school graduate and three-term attorney general, troubled by the pattern of constitutional violations identified by the state’s federal judges? Would he rethink the state’s cooperation with ICE officers and the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown?
Spokesperson Lars Dalseide wouldn’t answer but said the governor stands “unequivocally with ICE and all law enforcement officers.”
State agencies and law enforcement deflect blame and questions
Among his other duties, Morrisey appoints the superintendent of the State Police.
In late January, Morrisey’s choice for that job, Col. Jim Mitchell, dismissed any questions about his agency’s work with ICE. At the time, social media posts and word-of-mouth stories were spreading about an increase in immigration arrests across West Virginia.
“We only apprehend those who are in violation of the law,” he assured lawmakers. “I know I can state that clearly for us.”
But, in the first of the federal court rulings against ICE, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin ordered Antony Segundo Larrazabal-Gonzales released from jail.
Government lawyers did not present any evidence for why he was jailed for weeks without a hearing. Goodwin wrote that this violated the man’s due process rights under the Fifth Amendment: “The Constitution requires release.”
Why did the State Police say these arrests were following the law when they weren’t? Have troopers been given updated instructions based on the court rulings? Is the agency rethinking its partnership with ICE?
State Police spokesperson Leslie Goldie didn’t answer our questions. He suggested we ask ICE. They didn’t answer either.
In his legislative testimony, Mitchell said he knew little about what led ICE to arrest people and have them tossed into jail without even a hearing.
“I don’t know what the protocol is for ICE. I know all that is handled by them,” Mitchell said. “We will help in the original apprehension or detaining of that person, and then ICE takes care of all of that, so that would be a question for them as to the procedures they follow.”
Mitchell continued: “If it’s a detainment made by ICE, and it’s under their control, we have no jurisdiction at that point. They would have to make those decisions.”
But state agencies and state officials do have some control.
For example, Department of Corrections officials have an agreement with ICE. The federal agency gets to house its prisoners in state jails. The state gets paid.
Other state agencies enabled ICE’s raids in West Virginia communities.
In January, an officer from the state’s Public Service Commission called ICE on someone at a commercial truck inspection station. The agency does not appear to have a formal agreement with ICE, according to the federal government list posted online.
How does the PSC work with ICE? What instructions are given to PSC employees for dealing with ICE? What prompted this particular PSC worker to call ICE in this instance? Now that the arrest was thrown out, is the PSC concerned? Are they reviewing the way they handle such situations?
Spokesperson Andy Gallagher would not answer questions.
While officials celebrate arrests, judges castigate ICE
In the month since the January operation ended, dozens of those picked up by ICE have been ordered released from state jails.
Four different federal judges — appointed by three different presidents from both parties — have written a series of scathing opinions describing the ICE operation as out-of-control and unconstitutional.
“The risk of an erroneous deprivation of liberty when agents are given the power to indefinitely detain people with only the information garnered during a traffic stop on the side of the interstate is enormous, and enormously troubling,” wrote U.S. District Judge Irene Berger in a February ruling ordering the release of an immigrant arrested on I-77 and jailed for weeks.
Last week, Berger released three men arrested and illegally held by ICE after traffic stops.
The reasons were different: Speeding, trailer without a license plate and a blocked rearview mirror.
In each instance, an officer suspected they were in the country illegally because they didn’t speak fluent English. ICE arrested them and sent them to jail.
After the January ICE operation, U.S. Attorney Moore Capito celebrated. His office represents the government in court, where his lawyers have been unable to explain the arrests.
“The dedication shown by our state and local law enforcement partners during this operation reflects the very best of West Virginia,” said Capito.
We asked Capito if his office would follow the rulings from federal judges and why lawyers on his staff have been unable to answer questions in court. He wouldn’t answer.
As immigrants are held for weeks in state jails, lawyers from Attorney General JB McCuskey’s office have distanced the state from the detentions, arguing that its role is “nominal.”
We asked McCuskey if he was concerned by state agencies participating in illegal arrests and detentions. He didn’t answer.
State officials are undeterred by judges’ rulings
But some elected officials from West Virginia have been quick to defend ICE.
In a February order, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin said masked gangs of armed federal officers are arresting people without warrants and imprisoning them without due process, which represents “an assault on the constitutional order.”
“A regime of secret policing has no place in our society,” he wrote.
Representative Carol Miller, R-W.Va., criticized the judge in an online post.
“If Judge Goodwin experienced even 1% of the threats and harassment that ICE officers receive, he might have had the courage to make a ruling based on the law and not his personal political agenda,” she posted.
U.S. Representative Riley Moore, R-W.Va., told Fox News Digital that the ruling was “shameful.”
Late last week, Goodwin ordered the release of Miguel Izaguirre, a Honduran citizen who has been in the country for a decade and lives in Virginia with his two young children. He was arrested on Valentine’s Day near Summersville and held at South Central Regional Jail in Charleston.
Without evidence that he is a danger to the community or a flight risk and despite his community ties, ICE jailed Izaguirre without a hearing. Lawyers for the agency argued that they’re allowed to do this.
“The Government is wrong,” Goodwin wrote. “Judges in this district have said that over and over and over again. I have said it myself.”
He wrote that officials cannot continue to systematically violate the Constitution without consequences and threatened fines or contempt for all officials, state and federal, who are involved.
“Government officials — federal and state — subject to this court’s jurisdiction are required to conform their conduct to this court’s constitutional rulings,” Goodwin wrote.
We asked state officials who are helping ICE about the judge’s warning. They wouldn’t answer.