“S” should have been preparing to begin his senior year of high school. Instead, the 18-year-old spent part of his summer in an immigration detention center in Georgia after he and his father “A” were detained while attending a required ICE check-in in North Carolina.
S and A have pending asylum cases, meaning they are seeking legal protection in the U.S. and are required to attend regular check-ins with ICE. They have attended every check-in while waiting for their cases to be decided. Despite following ICE's rules, the son and father received no advance notice — and no explanation — for the decision to detain them.
The ACLU of North Carolina and ACLU of Georgia filed a habeas petition seeking the release of S in response to his unlawful and traumatic detention. S was released on bond on August 7 and returned home to North Carolina with his father, who was also granted bond. Their arrest and detention should never have happened.
This case is a direct result of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE’s new policy of re-detaining people at routine, mandatory immigration appointments as part of the federal administration’s mass deportation campaign. After President Trump and his administration made increasing immigration arrests a national priority, DHS started randomly re-arresting people the agency had already determined did not pose a danger to the community, were not likely to flee, and were fully complying with their conditions of release. DHS adopted this policy to meet arbitrary daily arrest quotas, specifically targeting noncitizens who are following the government’s own requirements.
The consequences of this re-detention policy have been immediate and drastic. Families have been torn apart as parents and community members disappear into ICE’s sprawling detention system. Individuals with chronic medical issues have been separated from essential medication and treatment. Employers have lost valued workers without warning, disrupting businesses and local economies.
By transferring people to detention facilities far from their homes, ICE has also made it much more difficult for detained people to communicate with attorneys, gather evidence, and pursue claims for immigration relief. The re-detention policy has further exposed a deeply broken immigration system that puts people in vulnerable positions, including by unlawfully detaining people at routine appointments they are required to attend.
If you or someone you know has been unlawfully re-detained at a routine immigration appointment, please complete ACLU-NC’s legal intake form. ACLU-NC encourages people to continue to consult with their attorneys about immigration appointments, attend their immigration appointments, understand their rights, and prepare an emergency plan in case of unexpected detention.
"An immigration check-in should not be a trap," said Corina Scott, staff attorney at the ACLU of North Carolina. "For years, immigrants in North Carolina have built their lives around DHS's policy that they will not be re-detained so long as they comply with the conditions of their release from custody. DHS cannot suddenly reverse course and arbitrarily re-detain people without the due process and individualized justification required by law. People should not lose their liberty for complying with the government’s own requirements."
