ICE on Long Island: Federal judge overturns arrest of Coram man, calls deportation campaign 'recipe for disaster'

In a scathing opinion, a federal judge has overturned the arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of a Long Island man and criticized the agency’s actions amid a mass deportation campaign as "a proverbial recipe for disaster."

Eastern District Judge Gary R. Brown on Monday ruled that ICE agents broke the law when they arrested an immigrant from El Salvador in Suffolk County in February since he had a valid juvenile immigrant visa and a work permit.

Brown said the arrest of William Enrique Sanchez Alfaro, 25, of Coram, by three experienced ICE agents called into question their training and the policies the agency was following as President Donald Trump pursues the largest deportation effort in U.S. history.

"While the facts elicited about the arrest and detention of Petitioner are brutal and unacceptable, the evidence highlights a more systemic concern: the officers who testified — all sworn to uphold the law — proved unaware of and oblivious to the requirements of the law," wrote Brown, a Trump-appointed judge.

"Importantly, these officers were not ‘rookies’ — each had more than a decade’s experience in immigration enforcement," he wrote. "The combination of the officers’ lack of training and preparation and the extraordinary pressure to exponentially increase the number of immigration arrests results in a proverbial recipe for disaster."

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District declined to comment.

21 days to take steps

Brown gave ICE 21 days to return to court to show it is taking steps to "ensure that future ICE enforcement actions within the Eastern District of New York shall be conducted in a lawful manner."

"Collectively, the officers’ testimony illustrates that arrest and detention practices deployed by ICE constitute a perversion of customary law enforcement practices in America," Brown wrote.

He ordered ICE to locate and return to Sanchez Alfaro his work authorization card and ruled his protection from deportation must be reinstated after ICE agents revoked it when they arrested him. Sanchez Alfaro was released from jail days after his arrest when his lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition — an increasingly common legal maneuver to get immigrants freed amid the crackdown.

In a previous ruling, Brown lambasted an ICE holding cell in Central Islip as cold, "putrid and cramped."

His ruling in Sanchez Alfaro's case is among a growing number of decisions by judges around the country calling ICE’s activities illegal as controversy over the deportation campaign escalates. The arrests of thousands of immigrants — most of them without criminal records, according to research — have provoked demonstrations. That's also true of the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security until ICE is reformed.

Trump and his top allies contend ICE is following proper procedures and seeking to deport dangerous criminals who are in the country illegally.

"I think he is standing up for justice," Chartrisse Adlam, Sanchez Alfaro's lawyer, said of the judge. "I’m proud he is doing his job properly."

Sanchez Alfaro told Newsday in Spanish he was surprised when he was arrested since he has legal status but is pleased he can now get on with his life.

"I’m happy because I’m free," he said. "I was in jail in a place where I never thought I would be."

Unaccompanied minor

Sanchez Alfaro arrived in the United States as an unaccompanied minor in 2018 and was granted a Special Juvenile Immigrant Status visa in 2022, according to court papers.

The visa is given to young people who have been abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent, and often leads to a green card. Sanchez Alfaro's visa protected him from deportation until at least April 2026, Brown wrote.

Despite that, ICE agents detained him on Feb. 6 even though they had no warrant for his arrest and their records check showed he had a visa and work permit, Brown wrote. He called the arrest "plainly illegal" and said it showed "an egregious lack of training provided to" the agents.

Sanchez Alfaro was arrested after ICE agents were surveilling his house and followed him, his father and another person, Brown wrote. The agents were looking for another person for whom they had a warrant and a photograph, Brown wrote.

After Adlam filed a habeas corpus petition on Feb. 10, Brown ordered Sanchez Alfaro released on Feb. 12 during a court hearing in Central Islip.

Sanchez Alfaro has no criminal record, was working in his family’s welding business, paid his taxes and was a "model citizen," according to sworn statements submitted to the court.

Patrick Young, a professor of immigration law at Hofstra Law School, called Brown’s ruling an important move toward reining in the agency.

"This is not just about one case, but this is about the entire procedure of ICE here on Long Island," Young said.