On December 3, 2018, a U.S. citizen detainee filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to challenge his unlawful arrest and detention by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. The plaintiff alleged that the Sheriff's Office carelessly and aggressively arrested him for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) between the two agencies, in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights and his right to be free from false imprisonment under Florida law. The BOA scheme, which provides the Sheriff with $50 per arrest, is an attempt to put a new gloss on local arrests for ICE. The plaintiff claimed that despite his repeated protests to multiple jail officers and his offer to produce proof of his U.S. citizenship, the Sheriff’s Office held him so that ICE could deport him to Jamaica. The plaintiff would have been deported to Jamaica but-for a last-minute intervention in which a friend sent a copy of the plaintiff's birth certificate to an ICE agent. The plaintiff sought declaratory and compensatory damages, as well as attorney’s fees.

On February 11, 2019, Judge Williams set a jury trial on February 3, 2020 and a mediator was appointed on March 14, 2019.

Mediation between the parties took place on September 26, 2019. The parties failed to reach a settlement during this mediation.

On November 1, 2019, Judge Williams granted the plaintiffs' motion to continue deadlines and reset the trial date for July 20, 2020. As of December 28, 2019, the parties are continuing with the discovery process.

Sichun Liu - 04/11/2019
Aaron Gurley - 12/28/2019


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