Judge Orders Release of Liberian Man After ICE Batter‑Ram Arrest Violates Fourth Amendment

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan ordered the immediate release of Liberian immigrant Garrison Gibson on Thursday, ruling that heavily armed immigration agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they used a battering ram to force their way into his Minneapolis home without a judicial warrant and arrested him. Gibson, 37, had fled Liberia’s civil war as a child, was living under an ICE order of supervision after a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed, and had checked in with immigration authorities at their Minneapolis office just days before the raid. Bryan found that agents entered without consent or a judge‑signed warrant and that officials also broke their own regulations by revoking Gibson’s supervision without proper notice or an immediate post‑detention interview. The arrest happened while Gibson’s wife and 9‑year‑old child were inside, and he was quickly transferred from Minnesota to a large detention camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso and then to an ICE facility in Albert Lea before the habeas petition forced his release. DHS has touted its Minnesota sweep as its largest current enforcement operation, claiming more than 2,500 arrests since Nov. 29, but court records cited in the ruling undercut an earlier DHS statement portraying Gibson as having a 'lengthy rap sheet,' showing only a single felony case from 2008 plus minor offenses. The decision puts a federal judge on record that at least some of the Trump administration’s high‑profile Minnesota raids are crossing constitutional lines, a finding likely to be seized on by local officials, civil‑rights lawyers and protesters already blasting ICE tactics after the recent killing of Renee Good by an immigration agent.