A Liberian man arrested after armed immigration agents broke down his door with a battering ram in Minnesota had been regularly checking in with federal authorities for years, his attorney has said. Garrison Gibson, 37, was taken into custody during what the Department of Homeland Security has called its biggest enforcement operation ever.
Attorney Mark Prokosch described the arrest as a 'blatant constitutional violation,' arguing that agents only had an administrative warrant, which authorises an arrest but does not permit forced entry into a private home. A criminal warrant signed by a judge is required for such action, he said.
Gibson fled the Liberian civil war as a child and had been ordered removed from the US, apparently due to a 2008 drug conviction later dismissed by the courts. He remained in the country legally under an order of supervision, requiring regular check-ins with immigration authorities. Just days before his arrest, he had checked in at the same regional immigration offices where agents have been staging enforcement raids.
'He would have had another check-in in a couple of months,' Prokosch said. 'So if he's this dangerous person, then, why are they letting him walk around?' Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin claimed Gibson has a lengthy rap sheet including robbery and drug possession, but court records show only one felony—the dismissed 2008 conviction—along with minor traffic violations and a fare evasion arrest.
Prokosch said Gibson was flown to Texas after his arrest but returned to Minnesota on a judge's order after the lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition. He is now held at an immigration detention centre in Albert Lea, Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to follow-up questions.
Gibson's wife, Teyana Gibson Brown, who was at home with their nine-year-old child during the raid, was deeply shaken, according to Prokosch. Activists attempted to disrupt the operation with drums and whistles, and video shows agents pushing and pepper-spraying demonstrators. The arrest comes amid protests over the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration agent in Minneapolis last week.
