On January 30, 2018, at a scheduled appointment at a USCIS field office, De Souza and her husband were found to have a genuine marriage. De Souza was, however, immediately arrested there by ICE. Similarly, on February 1, 2018, Junqueira and his wife were at a USCIS office for a scheduled interview concerning their marriage. Before the interview began, ICE arrested Junqueira. De Souza and Junquiera each filed petitions for habeas corpus asserting they are being detained by ICE in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, and seeking an order directing ICE to release them. De Souza is also attempting to represent a putative class in challenging the authority of ICE to arrest foreign nationals at USCIS offices and, wherever they are arrested, to deport them before USCIS decides whether to grant them provisional waivers that would allow them to seek to remain in the United States with their families.
The district court found that De Souza and Junquiera are each being detained in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that the court should determine whether their continued detention is justified. After this decision was announced in court on May 8, 2018, ICE released De Souza and Junqueira.
At hearings on May 22 and 23, 2018, the court was informed that after the court issued its decisions regarding De Souza and Junqueira, ICE reviewed detainee files in the Burlington, Massachusetts Field Office, found 30 to 40 additional cases in which the §241.4 procedures had not been followed, and released approximately 20 individuals.
The district court ruled that ICE did not follow 8 CFR §214.4, stating, “ICE’s illegal actions concerning De Souza and Junqueira have had profound human consequences that would continue without the court’s intervention. (Calderon Jimenez v. Cronen, 6/11/18)
Source: AILA Doc. No. 18072502.
