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Daniel Ramirez’s Attorney Blasts ICE For “Utterly Implausible And Wholly Fabricated” Claims

by America’s Voice Online on

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Lawyers for Daniel Ramirez Medina issued another very strong statement taking issue with what ICE has been saying about their client. We wanted to share the entire release as this case has gotten so much attention – and because ICE continues it’s false narrative about Daniel:

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division Office of Immigration Litigation responded to an order from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Counsel for the Petitioner, Mr. Ramirez, will file their own response brief by5:00pm PST today. It appears that the government is continuing to assert baseless character attacks against Mr. Ramirez, including the unsubstantiated accusation that he is “a gang member.” As previously asserted by Mr. Ramirez’s counsel, the government’s claims are unequivocally false and irresponsible. Mark Rosenbaum, counsel for Petitioner Daniel Ramirez Medina, issued the following initial statement in response to the Department of Justice’s brief:

“The Department of Justice alleges that while in custody, Mr. Ramirez acknowledged that he ‘used to hang out with’ and ‘still hangs out with’ members of two gangs. This is false. Mr. Ramirez did not say these things because they are not true. And while utterly implausible and wholly fabricated, these claims still would not be sufficient evidence that Mr. Ramirez is a threat to the public safety or national security.

“Additionally, the government continues to allege that Mr. Ramirez has a ‘gang tattoo,’ yet they have redacted the only photo released of the tattoo in question. As previously reported by the Seattle Times, the tattoo on Mr. Ramirez’s forearm says ‘La Paz BCS.’ The Seattle Times goes on to report:

‘La Paz means peace in Spanish, and is also the capital of Baja California Sur, the meaning behind the initials and the part of Mexico where Ramirez Medina was born, according to his attorney.’

“Even though Petitioner’s counsel invited the government to supply any corroborating evidence to support their outrageous claims of gang membership or activity beyond this supposed confession, they have failed to do so in this brief. We look forward to responding to the government’s false accusations in our reply brief this afternoon.”

Dara Lind writes that Daniel’s attorney “told Reuters that ICE agents ‘repeatedly pressured’ Ramirez ‘to falsely admit’ gang affiliation”, a move that could have been seen as an attempt to rescind his DACA because they either made a mistake in arresting him during the sweep of his father’s home, or they intentionally want to subject him to deportation:

“In theory, the government can take away an individual’s protection from deportation under DACA at any time, because DACA is officially a grant of ‘prosecutorial discretion’ in an individual case rather than a formal grant of immigration status.”

That’s exactly what happened earlier today, with Lind writing that ICE has officially stripped Daniel of his DACA protections. This news comes as members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus say they were physically removed from a meeting with ICE by Republicans. Rep. Luis Gutierrez said in a series of tweets that staffers from Speaker Paul Ryan’s forced him and others out:

Two Democratic representatives say Republicans kicked them out of a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday after the agency canceled a planned summit with Latino members earlier this week in favor of a bipartisan gathering that excluded many of them.

Reps. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said that Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told them they had to leave the meeting with ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan about deportation raids.