Ortega v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, No. 12-6608 (6th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseOrtega, a U.S. citizen, began an 11-day sentence of home confinement for driving under the influence on March 18, 2011. He had to wear an electronic monitoring device at all times. With prior approval, he could go to work, the doctor and church. The corrections department received a detainer for Ortega from federal immigration authorities, who issued the detainer after seeing Ortega’s DUI conviction and noticing that Ortega’s name and birth date resembled, but did not exactly match, those of an unlawful alien. As a matter of policy, the local department incarcerates any individual with an immigration detainer. On March 19, officers took Ortega to the local jail, where he remained until his release on March 22. The department did not conduct its own investigation of Ortega’s citizenship. Ortega filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents. The district court dismissed on qualified immunity grounds. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting claims that city officers violated his rights against deprivations of liberty without due process and against unreasonable seizures when they carried out the detainer and that the immigration agent caused those violations by issuing the detainer, and stating that qualified immunity protects all but “the plainly incompetent,”
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