(NewsNation) — New details have emerged about the arrest of a Liberian man in Minneapolis last weekend, an event seen live on NewsNation.
The man, Garrison Gibson, 37, is a Liberian national who has been in the U.S. since fleeing civil war as a child. Gibson had been ordered removed from the U.S. because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed by the courts.
Gibson has remained in the country legally under an order of supervision by ICE, with the requirement that he meet regularly with immigration authorities, according to Gibson’s attorney, Marc Prokosch.
Prokosch tells NewsNation the arrest was a “brutal violation of the Fourth Amendment” due to the lack of an adequate warrant. He said Gibson’s family denied the tactical unit entry before they used a battering ram to enter the home.
The Department of Homeland Security is defending the operation, telling NewsNation that Gibson is a “criminal illegal alien” with a rap sheet that includes robbery, drug possession with intent to sell and possession of a deadly weapon.
Prokosch told NewsNation that Gibson had been checking in regularly with federal authorities for years under order of supervision, including a visit to immigration offices just days before this raid. He describes Gibson’s legal status as a “gray area.”
“He came as a child refugee and had a couple of minor criminal things, which led him to lose his
status, and so since 2009, he’s been here on basically grace by the government,” Prokosch said.
“So they’ve allowed him to check in mostly because of the conditions in Liberia and his family
connections and the lack of severity of his old crimes and showing that he’s been rehabilitated. So they gave him a work permit since 2009 and let him just be here as long as he didn’t get
into any more trouble.”
Prokosch tells NewsNation that Gibson’s detainment is a violation of his order of supervision, and as such, ICE “abused their own rules by detaining him.”
Gibson was flown to Texas by immigration authorities in the hours after his arrest, then quickly flown back to Minnesota on a judge’s order after the lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition, used by courts to determine if an imprisonment is legal. The courts have not yet ruled on the petition.
Gibson is currently being held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea, Minnesota, after being held at a large camp on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, according to ICE’s detainee locator.
According to Prokosch, a federal judge has ordered his release by Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.