Judge orders ICE to release body camera footage after finding officer lied in Oregon

Federal courts in Oregon are currently scrutinizing the methods used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during local arrests.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled on Monday that ICE officers have continued to detain individuals in Oregon without valid warrants. The decision comes after a class action lawsuit filed last year by attorneys with the Innovation Law Lab. Those lawyers argued that the agency lacked the authority to make arrests without a judicial warrant.

Kasubhai had issued a preliminary order in February requiring ICE to limit warrantless arrests to cases where a person is likely to flee. The order also mandated that the agency send documentation of those arrests to the plaintiffs. Innovation Law Lab attorneys stated that ICE failed to comply with those terms. They claimed the agency conducted hundreds of warrantless arrests after the order took effect, a position denied by federal government lawyers.

The new order requires the federal government to provide all arrest documents to the Innovation Law Lab. ICE must also produce all body-worn camera footage for arrests conducted on or after Sept. 1, 2026. This documentation will allow the court to verify the circumstances of each detention.

The judge’s ruling focuses heavily on the accuracy of arrest reports, known as I-213 forms. During a September hearing, four immigrants testified that they were arrested by ICE in 2026 without a valid warrant. An ICE deportation officer identified as J.G. testified that agents used license plate readers to identify two of the detainees. Kasubhai found that the agency failed to properly document these instances, violating his earlier order.

The judge was particularly critical of the testimony given by officer J.G. The agent admitted on the witness stand that he wrote false information in an arrest report for a man detained in Medford last July. The report claimed the agent knew the detainee’s immigration status before the stop, a statement the agent conceded was untrue. Kasubhai wrote that the agent did not make a mistake but rather fabricated details to create the impression of a lawful, warrant-based arrest. He noted that it defies logic to treat such consequential errors as mere slips.

Kasubhai questioned the veracity of all I-213 forms completed by ICE officers in Oregon. He pointed to reports containing incorrect data, including one that listed an arrest location as California when it actually occurred in Oregon. The judge described the use of nearly identical language across different reports as boilerplate evidence of sloppy work. He stated that the agents' repeated claims of unawareness regarding community ties showed a failure to conduct basic investigative duties.

The ruling also challenged the federal government’s official count of warrantless arrests. Government documents provided to the plaintiffs stated that only 13 arrests in Oregon between February 2026 and August 2026 were conducted without a proper warrant. Kasubhai wrote that this number is highly unlikely given the frequency of invalid warrants. He concluded that ICE officers conducted significantly more than 13 such arrests during that period.

The order was issued while Kasubhai considers a related case in federal court in Eugene. During an evidentiary hearing on Monday, a man identified as L.A.M.A. testified that he was arrested in a Walmart parking lot in Albany on June 18. He said agents told him they would drive him to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma but instead left him on the streets of Portland. L.A.M.A. stated that he never saw a warrant and that his son had to drive from Albany to pick him up. Speaking in Spanish, he told the court the experience left him feeling anguish and frustration, noting how quickly his life changed within 24 hours.

ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.