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Hi there, and thanks for reading The Arrest That Shook Froid. Please share your thoughts, comments and criticisms with our team at border@montanafreepress.org.
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U.S. Border Patrol agents leave the Missouri River Courthouse in Great Falls after the initial appearance of Roberto Orozco-Ramirez on Jan. 28, 2026. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America
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After being incarcerated in the Cascade County Detention Center for more than two months, as of this afternoon, Roberto Orozco-Ramirez was no longer listed as an inmate. And as of 1 p.m. today, his family didn’t know his whereabouts.
On Monday, nine days before Orozco-Ramirez’s next scheduled hearing, lawyers for the federal government asked the court to dismiss the illegal re-entry charge they brought against him. (When asked why they motioned to dismiss a charge they brought, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, “Because matters are still pending in this case, we are unable to comment.”)
On Tuesday, Chief District Judge Brian Morris granted the government’s unopposed motion to dismiss.
The development effectively ends the criminal case and means Orozco-Ramirez will not serve prison time or probation for the illegal re-entry charge.
But, as I was reporting that breaking news story on Tuesday, immigration lawyers told me that the dismissal does not guarantee that Orozco-Ramirez will return home to Froid or be able to stay in the U.S.
They said that while it’s possible Orozco-Ramirez could be released from Cascade County jail, they said it was also possible — and likely — that he could be “picked up” from jail by federal immigration officials and transferred to a federal immigration detention facility.
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A Google Earth view of Cascade County Detention Center, where Orozco-Ramirez has been for more than two months. |
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Because there is no federal immigration detention facility in Montana, Orozco-Ramirez could be sent anywhere in the country. Kari Hong, a Missoula-based immigration attorney, said many immigrants detained in Montana are sent to federal facilities in Tacoma, Washington or Las Vegas, Nevada.
She also said the decision — to release an inmate or transfer them to a federal facility — can depend on the priorities of a presidential administration and the individual attitudes of federal immigration officers. Under the Trump administration, which has deployed federal immigration agents across American cities in a push for mass deportation, Hong said, Orozco-Ramirez could be facing “long odds” of being released.
“More likely than not, they will detain him,” she told me.
At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Orozco-Ramirez was still listed on the Cascade County Detention Center inmate roster as a federal inmate, meaning he was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
By 2 p.m., he was additionally listed as an immigration inmate, which, according to an official within the Cascade County Sheriff’s office, could mean that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requested the detention center either hold Orozco-Ramirez for up to 48 hours so the U.S. Department of Homeland Security can assume custody of him or notify DHS before he is released.
I called around, asking sheriffs deputies and corrections officers whether they could let us know if and when federal immigration officers were planning to come to the jail to detain Orozco-Ramirez. They said the information was not public, as it could pose a safety and security risk.
And by Thursday afternoon, Orozco-Ramirez was no longer listed on the jail roster.
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SO WHERE IS ROBERTO OROZCO-RAMIREZ?
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Lawyers told me there are three main ways to track Orozco-Ramirez’s whereabouts.
First, by checking for his name on the Cascade County Detention Center roster. Then, by searching for his name in ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System. My search for him on Thursday afternoon returned zero results, as you can see here:
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And lastly, by staying in touch with his family, who will likely be his first call if he gets access to a phone. As of Thursday afternoon, family members said they didn’t know where he was.
After we published the story on Tuesday about what could happen next for Orozco-Ramirez, we heard from several readers who wondered how or when Orozco-Ramirez might be able to speak with his family.
I asked Randall Caudle, an immigration attorney, and here’s what he said:
“[The ICE Online Detainee Locator System] is supposed to be updated immediately, but ICE often does not update for several days under our current administration. It is a U.S. Constitutional violation and is not legal, but much of what ICE does currently is not legal. Depending on the facility a person is being held at, they may be allowed to call their loved ones to let them know where they are, but not always.”
Hong, the Missoula-based immigration attorney, said “no one will notify Mr. Orozco-Ramirez’s family or lawyer where he is.”
She said that as a lawyer, she advises clients in detention centers “to contact me directly if they are transferred, or, have a cellmate have my number to contact me if they are taken away, but even then, I cannot usually find them.”
Orozco-Ramirez will likely need money to make a call, she said, but his family can’t provide money to his account if they don’t know where he is.
“Most people have other detainees who let them use their account number to make first calls to family or lawyers,” she added.
Some of you have asked about the legality of all of this. To that, Hong said: “Well, it does not seem morally right. But it is the system until Congress changes it.”
I’m planning to keep following this case and Orozco-Ramirez’s whereabouts and will share updates as they come. In the meantime, what questions do you have? What would you like me to look into and what do you want to know more about? Please reach our team at border@montanafreepress.org.
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