Froid man has federal immigration charges dropped

A Froid man who was arrested on felony federal immigration charges earlier this year has had his criminal proceedings dismissed, according to court documents.

Roberto Orozco-Ramirez was accused of illegal reentry and threatening a federal officer. Government lawyers filed the motion to dismiss the case. Charges were filed on Jan. 21, and the case was dismissed on April 14.

“The United States contends that for facts specific to this case, that dismissal is in the best interests of justice,” court documents filed by U.S. attorneys say.

Orozco-Ramirez has been in the U.S. since around 2000, court documents said, and owns a small business in Froid, which is currently being run by his son, community members have said. Members of the Froid community have accompanied the family to court hearings, driving hundreds of miles to support them.

“We are grateful for the Government’s decision to dismiss the criminal case.  We have no additional comment,” Hank Branom, a federal public defender and Orozco-Ramirez’s attorney in the case.

Orozco-Ramirez was initially removed from the U.S. in 2009 and his rights were violated during that process, court documents submitted by federal public defenders said on March 19. According to those documents, Orozco-Ramirez was given “5 to 10 minutes” to go through forms associated with his 2009 detainment, and his English was limited at the time.

The federal agent in charge of his 2009 case “led him to believe” that he could ask for a hearing and litigate his right to stay in the United States, and “it would delay the proceedings six months or more at which time he would be deported and would be unable to return,” meaning he thought he could voluntarily depart the United States after being detained and return in the future. A first immigration offense in the United States generally leads to a deportation and is a civil matter, while reentry can be felony charge.

“Roberto believed that the documents he signed were for this ‘voluntary departure’ option and was told by (Special Agent) McClune to sign all of the forms to voluntarily depart the United States, thereby preserving his ability to return to the U.S. SA McClune did not inform Roberto that the document he signed functioned like a removal order and waived all his rights to a regular removal proceeding under 8 U.S.C. § 1229,” court documents state.

The federal agent also failed to tell Orozco-Ramirez that he qualified for removal and could seek “redetermination” from an immigration judge immediately. Orozco-Ramirez never saw an immigration judge.

He additionally was not provided with a list of attorneys and organizations that could potentially help him, despite Orozco-Ramirez requesting counsel, a brief filed by his lawyers in support of the government’s motion to dismiss says. The federal agent also incorrectly stated he had no family in the U.S. nor did he have any relations that were U.S. citizens, court records say. 

At the time of detention, in 2009, Orozco-Ramirez’ had a child in the United States. He also had another child born the day of his voluntary removal from the U.S. and did not see that child before departing the country, court documents state.

The court documents also outline some background on Orozco-Ramirez’s time in the United States — his family sent him to the U.S. to “protect him from the violence his family was experiencing in the late 1990s and early 2000s.”

Court documents state Orozco-Ramirez’s father and stepbrother were kidnapped, and, additionally, one stepbrother “completely disappeared likely as a result of kidnapping.” Court documents also state that on March 10, Orozco-Ramirez’s brother was murdered in Mexico.

It was not immediately clear what will happen next, though he is not listed on Cascade County Detention Center’s jail roster, where he had been held. In other high-profile immigration cases, including one in Helena, the defendant decided to return to their country of origin.