Lawyers for a detained DACA recipient now say ICE doctored paperwork to include gang affiliation
Attorneys representing the Deferred Action recipient who was detained in a raid in Washington state are accusing government officials of doctoring legal document to make their client appear to be a self-admitted gang member.
Daniel Ramirez Medina’s arrest this week has drawn national attention because government officials vetted him twice before granting him Deferred Action, or DACA, the federal program that provides young immigrants a temporary work permit and protections from deportation.
Lawyers say Ramirez Medina filed a petition to be removed from the Northwest Detention Center’s gang unit, where he has been detained for the past week.
The brief states Ramirez Medina initially submitted his petition (pictured above) denying any gang affiliation: “I came in and the officers said I have gang affiliation with gangs so I wear an orange uniform. I do not have a criminal history and I’m not affiliated with any gangs.”
Lawyers claim that when the statement was later returned to Ramirez Medina, sections had been erased to make it seem like he is a self-admitted gang member: “I have gang affiliation with gangs so I wear an orange uniform. I do not have a criminal history and I’m not affiliated with any gangs.”
Ramirez Medina’s lawyer, Mark Rosenbaum, told Fusion earlier this week that “it’s shocking and deeply regrettable that the United States government would make such defamatory and harmful statements about a private individual.”
During a press call Thursday evening Rosenbaum said, “What began, I thought, as a mistake in bringing Daniel in has turned into a bogus operation that is attempting to railroad him and violate the sacred program that the DACA represents,” according to The Stranger.
“It is one of the most serious examples of governmental misconduct that I have come across in my 40 years of practice,” Rosenbaum said on the call.
Ramirez Medina’s attorneys are back in court Friday morning. We’ve reached out to ICE for comment and will update if we hear back.