Over the last month, MPR News has uncovered a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactic: the re-arresting of ICE detainees. Recently, one man on the cusp of securing U.S. residency was detained again just three minutes after a judge’s order freed him.

Yader Cortez and Jennifer Cortez, his U.S.-born wife, live in St. Cloud with their 17-month-old daughter Arianna and Jennifer’s three children from a previous relationship.

U.S. District Judge Jerry W. Blackwell ordered the immediate release of Yader Cortez from ICE custody on Oct. 1. Blackwell called the warrantless arrest back in June “illegal.”

Yader, a Nicaraguan immigrant, had been held at Sherburne County Jail since the beginning of July. He was picked up by federal agents one day after he agreed to a plea deal for a fourth-degree misdemeanor DWI. The agreement said Yader would serve probation, not incarceration. Yader said agents picked him up six blocks from his house.

On Oct. 2, Yader was transferred from the jail to Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building to sign papers and be released. As soon as he walked outside the rear of the building, he was immediately re-arrested.

Shortly after he was freed, he said three men dressed in civilian clothing approached him and asked him if he was Yader. In an MPR News interview conducted in Spanish, he said he answered yes.

“Then he tells me, ‘You’re being arrested by ICE.’ I ask, ‘Why? The judge is letting me go free, isn’t he?’” Yader asked the official. “Then he said, ‘The judge doesn’t know what he’s doing. He made a mistake in your case. He’s fed up.’”

The Department of Homeland Security said it is within the law to re-arrest immigrants in this way.

“When an illegal alien is ordered released by a judge, that does not immunize the alien from immigration enforcement for all time. Instead, if ICE does not appeal the ruling, it may seek to rearrest the alien in a way that complies with the judicial decision. To suggest that ICE cannot do this is nothing short of sabotage,” a DHS spokesperson told MPR News.

Yader said he is traumatized from the whiplash he endured on the day of his re-arrest.

“I had never experienced anything like that — going from being free to suddenly being imprisoned again — and it left me in shock,” Yader said.

He said he remembered the start of that day when he was supposed to be released. Yader recalled how “friendly” the ICE officers were. When he was detained again, Yader said it was a different story.

“His expression changed — much like the wolf’s before devouring Little Red Riding Hood — and his tone was different,” Yader said in Spanish. “He spoke to me in a way meant to instill fear and dread.”

The 40-year-old said he knows what he experienced that day.

“I felt sad seeing so much hatred from that person who works for ICE, because that is what I would call racism—I can’t think of any other word for it,” he said.

Yader is now released again — after his lawyer and his wife spent the weekend using every tool in their respective boxes to free him. His lawyer Danielle Oxendine Molliver made phone calls and wrote up a motion to file in court.

His wife, Jennifer, a U.S. citizen, reached out to state lawmakers. She also turned to social media to share their story with others.

“I want to shine a light that this is happening because nobody's talking about it,” she said.

Jennifer said she’s grateful that her husband didn’t experience the physical violence associated with ICE in Minnesota.

“That doesn't mean that they are not going at it a different way. If that makes sense, they are hurting us just the same. You know, psychologically, emotionally,” she said.

His re-arrest on Oct. 2 left Yader believing there is no respect for the law in the United States, he said.

“They are acting against the law, much like in countries ruled by dictators who wield the same power — controlling the police and inflicting harm upon their own people,” he said.

The weekend after his re-arrest, his wife said she found out from another lawyer the couple had retained that Cortez had been approved for U.S. residency.

Jennifer said she called him that Sunday. She told him he would be released. And that he was now a U.S. resident.

“Gloria al Señor Jesus Cristo,” Cortez remembered saying. “Gracias a Dios.” (“Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you to God.”)

He said he barely slept that night in his cell.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.