Northsider followed the rules to stay in U.S. ICE took him anyway
Garrison Gibson and his wife, Teyana Gibson-Brown, met with reporters to discuss how ICE detained Gibson. A judge last week ordered his release. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini, Editor
ICE agents used a battering ram to break Garrison Gibson’s front door on Russell Avenue North. They brought him out on a bitterly cold Sunday in a tee-shirt, shorts and slippers and used pepper spray to keep angry neighbors at bay.
When they arrived at a Saint Paul detention center, agents took trophy pictures with Gibson – posing with their thumbs up.
The photos were among the chilling details he and his wife, Teyana Gibson-Brown, recounted during a press conference Saturday at the Saint Paul office of their attorney. A judge’s ruling brought him home the day before.
“One stood by me on the right and one stood at my left,” the softspoken Gibson, a refugee from Liberia, said. “I wasn’t the only one. They did that to everybody.”
Gibson is among hundreds caught up in a surge of immigration enforcement operations around the Twin Cities. Agents knocked on his door the morning of Jan. 11. Gibson denied them entry, saying to go get a warrant.
They returned later with an administrative warrant signed by an ICE officer at the scene. This time there were more officers and, instead of knocking, they broke down the front door to get to Gibson.
He was placed on a flight to Texas, he sad, but was flown back to Minnesota on Thursday after a judge ordered him released, ruling that agents did not have a valid judicial warrant to enter the house.
He was home for his daughter’s 11th birthday but detained again the next day when he returned to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building to finish paperwork. A supervisor released him after three hours, telling the family his rearrest was a mistake.
Attorney Marc Prokotsch is asking an immigration judge to vacate the detention order, which would restore his refugee status and allow him to seek a path to permanent residency.
Gibson and his wife said he did everything right. He has no criminal record, wore an ankle monitor assigned to him and routinely checked in with the local ICE office.
Teyana Gibson-Brown used her cellphone to capture the arrest in their home on video. She referred to her husband of 12 years as “my everything.”
“I was hugging him while they were trying to detain him,” she said. “I was hugging him and they kind of pulled me and I fell to the ground. I stood up again when they had him cuffed and I just grabbed him and was just screaming no, no.”
Minnesota, with the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to halt the use of aggressive and unconstitutional enforcement.
After his release, Garrison Gibson designed a shirt that said on the front, “Immigrants Make American Great.” On the back is a news image of his wife at the front door facing ICE agents. Photo by David Pierini
“I think (ICE) is basically trying to flood the zone,” said Prokotsch, adding there are roughly 350 immigration attorneys statewide, all who are swamped with requests for help. “Our teams are working around the clock to make sure that our clients and their families get proper legal representation and due process.”
Gibson described a chaotic environment at the Whipple Building with local agents and those flown in not seeming to work with any coordination. He said he was in a small holding cell with maybe 40 other people. All were shackled. Gibson said.
He remained shackled as he tried to walk up the steps to an airliner that took him and others to El Paso, Texas.
“They told me I was going to Texas to be deported and I said, ‘how can y’all deport me. I’ve been following these instructions for all these years,’” Gibson said. “The guy said it was above his pay grade. They’re tearing apart families.”
Gibson was not allowed to call home for two days later. After he was released, he met with neighbors who had tried to chase ICE away the day of his arrest. He gave them hugs.
Among the people in the house at the time of his arrest was their 11-year-old daughter. She now panics when she hears knocking on their door.