Capitol News

A federal judge has ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to either immediately release 10 immigrants held in detention without due process or provide them with a bond hearing before an immigration court judge within seven days. The decisions, issued on October 17, include several clients represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, among them Jose Contreras-Cervantes, a Michigan resident who has leukemia and three U.S.-citizen children. Two additional individuals are represented by private immigration counsel.

The cases challenge a directive from the Trump administration that removes the right to bond hearings for certain noncitizens while their immigration cases are pending. The ACLU argued in court filings that this directive violates both established law and constitutional rights, potentially leading to mandatory detention for millions of noncitizens without judicial review.

Judge Brandy R. McMillion ruled that people like Contreras-Cervantes, who have lived in the United States for many years, are eligible for release from detention while their cases proceed. She wrote: “The most elemental of liberty interests is to be free from restraint and physical detention. For centuries, the Government has acted in accordance with these principles. The recent shift to use the mandatory detention framework…is not only wrong but also fundamentally unfair. In a nation of laws vetted and implemented by Congress, we don’t get to arbitrarily choose which laws we feel like following when they best suit our interests.”

Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said: “In Michigan and across the country, court after court is saying that what the Trump administration is doing is illegal. This decision is the latest among dozens of cases where federal judges have ruled that ICE cannot hold people without bond hearings. Yet, ICE hasn’t stopped. It’s continuing to lock people up without any due process regardless of whether they’ve lived here for decades, regardless of whether they have families and children who need them, and regardless of how deeply rooted they are in their community. Well, if ICE isn’t stopping, we’re not stopping either. What Jose’s family has gone through is unbearable. But it is also commonplace. This administration is tearing families apart and locking people up for no reason every single day. We aren’t going to let that happen. Not to Jose’s family. And not to the hundreds and hundreds of other families who face separation under this new directive.”

Lupita Contreras-Cervantes commented on her husband’s case: “This ruling provides incredible relief for me and my family. The stress created by the threats to Jose’s health because of the disruption of his treatment for a rare, life-threatening form of leukemia has been constant. Worst of all is watching my children suffer with the heartbreak and anxiety of being separated from the father they dearly love... We can’t wait to hold him in our arms again... We are immensely grateful to the judge whose ruling brought hope back into our lives – hope not just for my husband and our family, but for all the other immigrants being illegally detained and separated from their families.”

Previously in August, another ACLU client—Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos—was released or given a bond hearing following a similar order by Judge McMillion; he was released days later.

These rulings align with others across federal courts nationwide granting noncitizens access to bond hearings as challenges continue against recent changes in immigration enforcement policy.