· Great Falls Tribune · By John S. Adams · From the Border Crossing Law Firm media archive.
The Great Falls Tribune presents Audemio Orozco-Ramirez's detailed account of being raped by other detainees during his first night in ICE custody at the Jefferson County jail. The investigation found delayed reporting caused by a language barrier, uncertainty about preserved physical evidence, and nearly three and a half hours missing from the exported surveillance footage. Shahid Haque argued that his client had been treated as a suspect rather than a victim and could be deported before obtaining justice.
This investigation brought national detention-policy failures into a Montana jail used routinely to transfer ICE detainees out of the state. For Shahid, the case joined individual immigration representation with questions about victim treatment, jail oversight, access to counsel, and whether removal could erase a civil-rights claim.