Sosa Martinez v. DHS

In November 2026, four individuals filed a class action lawsuit challenging the unlawful re-detention of immigrant community members following the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) abrupt and unexplained reversal of longstanding federal immigration policy.

The policy reversal was part of the federal government’s broader campaign to expand immigration detention and accelerate mass deportations. As a result, thousands of noncitizens previously released from immigration custody began facing the threat of arbitrary re-arrest and indefinite detention despite complying with release conditions and ICE’s prior determination that they posed no danger or flight risk. Since May 2025, hundreds, if not thousands, of people were re-detained in the ICE Atlanta Field Office’s area of responsibility alone: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The American Civil Liberties Unions of North Carolina (ACLU-NC), South Carolina (ACLU-SC), and Georgia (ACLU-GA), and Foley Hoag LLP filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of four plaintiffs, all of whom have pending applications for immigration relief:

• Livinton Sosa Martinez, a 41-year-old Nicaraguan man who resides in Greensboro, North Carolina;
• Raquel Mariona Ebora, a 39-year-old Honduran woman who resides in Dunn, North Carolina;
• Alvaro Ibañez-Cardenas, a 35-year-old Venezuelan man who resides in Athens, Georgia; and
• Ambrosio Trujillo Zavaleta, a 46-year-old Mexican man who resides in Savannah, Georgia.

DHS made an abrupt, unlawful, and unexplained change to a policy that had been in place for more than four decades. This change left thousands of people across three states unable to rely on a government practice on which they had built their lives. The destabilizing and devastating impact of these changes affected not only the individuals facing imminent risk of baseless re-detention, but the families, employers, and communities who depend on them.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits repeated seizures based on the same probable cause. The plaintiffs in this case are asking the Court to uphold the protections of the Fourth Amendment for themselves and the thousands of people who find themselves in similar predicaments under the abrupt policy change. Nobody should live in fear of arbitrary re-detention despite attempting to comply with the law and attend immigration court hearings.

The plaintiffs filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Nov. 12, 2026. The case is ongoing.