Oregon Federal judge orders Mexican migrant seeking asylum to be released by ICE

A federal judge in Oregon has ordered the immediate release of a 24-year-old migrant from Mexico who was arrested after a routine asylum hearing and then held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility for nearly a month.

Judge Michael H. Simon ordered the migrant, known as Y-Z-L-H, be released from custody, arguing the government had no right to detain him given his temporary legal status, or parole, was still valid through July 2025, according to The Oregonian. 

Simon granted the man’s habeas petition, finding that ICE officers had unlawfully and without justification detained the man in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

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The migrant came to the U.S. in July 2023 and claimed he had been threatened by the violent Mexican cartel Familia Michoacana. U.S. officials let him stay temporarily on humanitarian grounds and applied for asylum about a year ago.

On June 5, he went to Portland Immigration Court for an asylum hearing and asked for more time to find a lawyer.

The government moved to dismiss his asylum case and the judge granted the dismissal over his objection. The migrant is still appealing this decision. As soon as he walked out of the courtroom, he was arrested by ICE agents and taken to Tacoma detention facility in Washington state.

Attorneys for Innovation Law Lab, an Oregon-based nonprofit legal organization that is representing the migrant, argued at the hearing that federal authorities had no lawful basis for arresting the man and had not formally revoked his temporary parole status, allowing him to remain in the United States. 

The judge agreed and said that ICE failed to follow due process as they didn’t explain or justify why they arrested him.

Government lawyers said the arrest was allowed because it was up to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s discretion, but the judge rejected that, saying executive agencies must follow the law and can’t just do whatever they want.

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“How do we know whether the secretary has complied with the law unless the secretary tells us … the basis for the ruling,” Simon asked, per The Oregonian. “Isn’t the whole purpose of checks and balances that the executive branch must follow the law that Congress writes and the judiciary is here to ensure that the executive branch only takes those actions that are authorized by law?”

The government initially claimed it had notified the migrant in April that his temporary status would end that month, but later reversed course in court filings, acknowledging that his parole was in fact valid through July 19, 2025, per the outlet. 

A day before his arrest, Y-Z-L-H was granted a five-year work permit — a result of an October 2023 policy change by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which extended the validity period of employment authorization for asylum seekers.

He lives in Newport, Oregon and has no criminal record.  

Innovation Law Lab has been involved in several high-profile immigration cases, particularly those challenging U.S. policies that impact asylum seekers.

One notable case came in 2020, when the group sued the federal government over former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims were processed in U.S. courts.

The group argued the policy violated U.S. immigration law and international human rights protections. A federal appeals court agreed and blocked the policy, but the Supreme Court later vacated that ruling after the Biden administration ended the program.