Talk about flipping reality on its head, an illegal alien who overstayed his student visa is suing Nashville’s Davidson County, claiming his constitutional rights were violated when he was detained by the county sheriff’s department.
Saudi national Abdullah Abriq filed a class-action lawsuit requesting the court to prohibit Davidson County from honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency hold requests, according to LifeZette.com.
U.S. District Judge William Campbell Jr. found that Abriq’s detention likely violated the Fourth Amendment unless the government can show agents had probable cause to believe he had committed a crime other than a civil immigration violation, the online news source reported.
Ironically, Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, a Democrat, declined an invitation to discuss immigration with President Donald Trump last year at the White House.
AT 6: Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall explains why he chose not to meet with Pres.Trump this week in Washington following immigration ban pic.twitter.com/ZGpC1A4XC8
— Hayley Mason (@HayleyMasonTV) February 9, 2017
Abriq’s attorney, Tricia Herzfeld, told LifeZette that “detainer cases often implicate a person who has been charged with a criminal offense.”
“Mr. Abriq has never been charged with a criminal offense,” Herzfeld said. “The issue in this case is that the jail does not have a contract with ICE to house immigration detainees. The jail once had a contract to enforce federal immigration law, but that contract expired in 2012 and was not renewed.”
Campbell had earlier dismissed other claims made in the lawsuit, but has asked the attorneys in the case for written arguments about whether to grant the defendant’s request to toss out the case, Lifezette reported.
Abriq was held for six days at a federal facility, but now lives with his wife, who is an American citizen, and has applied for a green card.
The Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), filed a friend of the court brief last week on behalf of the defendants.
Citing the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in a case out of Texas that proper hold requests from ICE do not violate the Fourth Amendment, IRLI is asking Campbell to “reconsider [his] tentative ruling.”
In effect, the group is saying that it’s proper for the feds to enforce immigration laws by detaining illegal aliens even if they have not committed criminal offenses.
IRLI staff counsel Elizabeth Hohenstein told LifeZette immigration activists look to frustrate immigration enforcement by trying to intimidate local jurisdictions.
“A lot of times in these immigration cases, they go after the local jurisdiction because they don’t have the money,” Hohenstein said. “It’s a great tactic for them to take.”
In the end, these cases serve as a marker for other jurisdictions looking to embrace illegal immigration.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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