A federal judge on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction barring federal immigration officers from making warrantless arrests without finding that a person represents a risk of escaping or fleeing. U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai made the ruling from the bench at the end of a daylong hearing in federal court in Portland. With the order, Oregon joins Washington, D.C., and Colorado in restricting the practice.“There is ample evidence that establishes there’s a pattern and practice of executing warrantless arrests” without the required legal findings on flight risk, Kasubhai said.“Likelihood of escape considerations are not being made on a far-reaching scale across the populations in our community who are subject to immigration law,” he added.He said there’s clear evidence of potential future harm, noting the overwhelming material documenting “broad-reaching dragnet, sweeping approaches” that will continue to force people who would otherwise not be targets to be “caught up again and again” by federal immigration officers. “The harm is great, significant and severe, pervasive for both individuals, their families, their communities,” he said.Based on his view of videos of multiple U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stops, Kasbuhai called the manner of the arrests “violent and brutal.” Both plaintiffs were stopped while going about activities of daily living and were not intended targets of federal officers, he noted.“There can be an injury no more irreparable than the manner in which these plaintiffs have been stopped, detained, thrown to the ground and handcuffed,” he said. “It’s violent and brutal, what I’ve seen in the stops. The drawing of firearms, the civil administration process, is excessive and defies human decency.”He said he doesn’t believe his injunction will impede immigration enforcement but will improve it. The judge ordered federal immigration officers to document in narrative form all warrantless arrests made in Oregon and what officers used to support their finding that someone was likely to escape before they could obtain a warrant.Officers must document the date and time of the arrest and the person’s community and family ties and any jobs held, Kasubhai said. Warrantless immigration arrests made in the state without a finding that the person is likely to escape “insults the due process rights” afforded by the Constitution, he said.“Due process calls for those who have great power to exercise great restraint. That is the bedrock of a Democratic Republic founded on this great Constitution,” Kasubhai said. “I think we’re losing that.”Attorney Stephen Manning, executive director of Innovation Law Lab, had sought the injunction, urging the judge to bar what he called federal immigration officers’ practice of “arrest first, justify later.” Immigrants in some of the largest cities and counties in Oregon “are living under a state of emergency,” Manning argued, because officers from ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have been in the state’s “streets, neighborhoods and schools” arresting people without warrants and sweeping them out of state.“Going to work, coming home from work, driving on the highway, buying bread or hanging out with your family at home. Those are not existential threats for most of us,” Manning said, “... but they are for immigrants and people perceived as immigrants. It is an upside-down world.”He asked the court to protect thousands of Oregonians vulnerable to becoming ICE targets or so-called “collaterals.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Ratcliffe asked the judge not to take the “drastic step” of issuing an injunction. He pointed to a recent memo, dated Jan. 28, from acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons that set out the requirements and guidance for all ICE officers on how to conduct warrantless immigration arrests. He argued that the memo would prevent any future harm because it makes clear to federal immigration officers that they must follow the law.The lead plaintiff in the case, a 45-year-old woman from Mexico identified only as MJMA, was riding to work in the back seat of a van when officers stopped it in Woodburn on Oct. 30. She was among five passengers detained. When she was taken to the Portland ICE office, an ICE supervisor created and signed a warrant for her arrest though he knew officers had already arrested her without a warrant, he testified previously.She was kept overnight in a detention center in Tacoma and released the next day. Testimony about her arrest elicited testimony in December about ICE arrest quotas and warrants drafted after arrests.The other plaintiff, Victor Manuel Cruz Gomez, broke down on the witness stand as he described how he was pulled over by immigration enforcement officers on his way home from construction work about three miles from his Hillsboro home on Oct. 14. The 57-year-old from Mexico has lived in Oregon for 25 years.ICE officials held the married father of three and grandfather of four in their Tacoma detention center for three weeks, even though he had a valid work permit and received notice that he has been accepted to receive a U visa as a crime victim in a fraud case.During his stop, he said he showed the officers his driver’s license and work permit. They weren’t satisfied, claimed his permit wasn’t valid and told him, “You’re still an illegal,” Cruz Gomez recalled, raising his hand to his forehead to cover his tears.Kasubhai also granted class-action status to the suit filed by Cruz Gomez and MJMA, meaning they can represent all Oregonians at risk of arrest by immigration officers without a warrant and without the legally required assessment that the individual poses a risk of fleeing.That also means that all documentation of warrantless arrests in Oregon going forward will be provided to Manning and his legal team in the ongoing class-action suit, he said.Kasubhai asked how many arrests without warrants and escape assessments would he need to conclude that the federal government has a “practice or policy” of not following the law. Manning said two is sufficient, citing the MJMA and Cruz Gomez’s cases.U.S. Justice Department lawyers argued the judge would need “significantly” more evidence.Innovation Law Lab lawyers played three videos for the judge: -- An early morning Nov. 5 immigration stop and handcuffing of a Cottage Grove woman who has a permanent residence card and does Spanish interpreting work for Cottage Grove police.-- Armed ICE officers bursting into a Gresham apartment without a warrant on Oct. 15 and their arrest of two men who were not the target of the investigation. -- An immigration lawyer’s confrontation with ICE officers when she demanded they leave an apartment complex parking lot while one asserted that agents can “make warrantless arrests.”Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariana N. Garousi highlighted the memo from Lyons, which the federal government presented in a pending court case in Minnesota last week. It says the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes warrantless arrests if an officer has “reason to believe” someone is unlawfully in the U.S. “and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.” The memo served as a reminder, Lyons wrote, of what he called an “essential authority” and guide for officers in the “consistent exercise of warrantless arrest authority” for civil violations of immigration law. Garousi argued the Lyons memo “cuts against” the plaintiffs’ argument for an injunction, as it “provides the exact remedy they’re looking for.” That is, she said, guidance on arrests and a “reaffirmation” of ICE directives.Lyons’ memo sets out factors officers should consider to determine if someone is likely to escape, including the person’s behavior before and after an encounter, refusal to follow lawful commands, attempt to evade officers, the person’s age and health, possession of suspected fraudulent work permits or identity documents and whether the person has complied with immigration registration requirements.“If warrantless arrests become necessary under the circumstances, immigration officers must effectuate such arrests in a manner consistent with the ICE policy and the law” and follow up with the proper paperwork, the memo says. Kasubhai said he did not think Lyons’ memo reflected the reality on the street. Manning said he did not agree with Lyons’ interpretation of the law, saying his memo did not reflect that an ICE officer needs probable cause that someone poses a flight risk prior to making a warrantless arrest.‘Anxious and terrified’Cruz Gomez said he prayed nightly with others at the Tacoma detention center and was twice offered $1,000 if he voluntarily signed a document to self-deport.“I was very, very anxious and terrified,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.”Cruz Gomez said the three officers who handcuffed and arrested him shared a photo in the car of another man on one of their cellphones, which he said was a person “completely different than me.” He was driven to the ICE office in Portland and then taken with others to Tacoma. No one on the day of his arrest asked him about his immigration status, he testified. If they had, he said, they would have learned he had received deferred action for a U visa, suggesting he met all the requirements, and a visa would be approved once available. The special visa is provided to immigrants who report crimes, are victims of crimes or assist police in prosecuting another. He had been a victim of fraud in 2012 and assisted in the prosecution of the crime, according to court records.During his detention, he described the “psychological cruelty” of the staff, noting he arrived and was placed in a freezing concrete cell, making it impossible to sleep.He said he has gone back to Mexico three times since he first came to the U.S. and that he last entered the United States in 1999. He co-owns a house in Hillsboro with his wife.He has three grown children. One son and daughter are lawful permanent residents and another daughter has status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA. He has no criminal record, has work authorization and owns his own construction business, according to his lawyers.With the help of attorneys, a judge ordered his release from detention after his family posted a $3,000 bond in immigration court.He said his arrest and detention have shattered any sense of security among his family.“We went three weeks without even opening the door to the house because of the fear we were feeling,” he said, dabbing his tears with a tissue. “I suffer from a lot of anxiety whenever I see any officer.” ‘That’s my mom’Another witness for the plaintiffs, Emely Avila, testified that she happened upon an ICE stop in Cottage Grove last November and started filming when she realized her mother, Juana Avila, was the one being detained.“Oh my (expletive) God, that’s my mom!” Emely Avila is heard on the video. “What are you doing? ... She has a green card. … You don’t need to tackle her! There’s no reason to (expletive) do this! You guys are (expletive) crazy!” Juana Avila said she left her home that morning when it was still dark after she received calls from several community members who told her that ICE had arrested someone and left the person’s car behind. Suddenly, she noticed flashing lights behind her and pulled over, she wrote in a declaration. At least two masked officers showed up at her window and told her she was under arrest, she said. She asked why she had been stopped and asked for any paperwork but was shown nothing, she said. “One tried to open my car doors. Another reached through my open window, unlocked my door and dragged me out of the car,” Juana Avila said. “They pushed me to the ground, and I felt their knees on my back, forcing me down. They were shouting at me. I begged them not to hurt me.”She told the officers that she had children asleep at home and begged for her release. They handcuffed her and took her into their car and then searched her wallet, where they found her driver’s license and her permanent residency card.“I felt the most severe form of panic I have ever experienced,” Juana Avila said in her statement. “Every time I leave the house, I leave with fear.” Avila was let go that night from the scene of her stop and not taken to an ICE detention facility.Ratcliffe, the Justice Department lawyer who questioned both Cruz Gomez and Emely Avila on cross examination in court, apologized for any harm that was caused to them or their family members.Lawyer confronts ICEImmigration lawyer Alicia Vial Beesley testified that she took a video on Dec. 15 in the parking lot of the Riverwood Heights Apartments in Tigard when she confronted ICE officers in green ballistic vests who had knocked on the door of her clients. They have asylum applications pending, she said.“Get the (expletive) out of this apartment,” she’s heard yelling on the video. “Just go, get off the property.” An ICE officer tells her to back up and stand an arms-length away. Another officer tells her that “cops make warrantless arrests,” according to the video. “I received a call from clients that ICE had been at their door and threatened to arrest them,” she said. “I wanted to have on video what their excuse was for trying to arrest my clients.”MORE BY MAXINE BERNSTEINKasubhai said his order is effective immediately but he intends to issue a written ruling as well.Outside court, Manning said he expects a return to “decency, normalcy, due process. ... ”That’s what we should see happening in Oregon again.”If ICE officers do not follow the court’s order, Manning said he and his lawyers will be back before the judge.