Detroit man released from immigration detention after judge rules Trump-era policy unlawful

BY JON KING, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—A longtime Detroit resident and father of five children, all of whom are US citizens, was released from immigration detention Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully denied him due process.

Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos, who has lived in the United States for 26 years and has no criminal record, was arrested during a traffic stop in June and held for more than two months without a bond hearing.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a lawsuit on his behalf, resulting in a late August ruling by US District Judge Brandy R. McMillion that a Trump-era directive to deny bond hearings to certain immigrants was “not only wrong but also fundamentally unfair.” McMillion was appointed by President Joe Biden.

Lopez-Campos was released Wednesday.

“I am happy to finally be with my family with the help of my legal team,” he said in a statement released by the ACLU. “I hope to continue to fight my case.”

The directive, issued in July by the Trump administration, sought to reverse longstanding policy by eliminating access to bond hearings for immigrants in civil detention. Legal experts said the rule, if left in place, would have subjected individuals to mandatory detention without judicial review for months or even years.

“We are thrilled that Juan gets to go home to his family while his immigration case proceeds. It was not only illegal, but inhumane, to keep locked up this longtime Detroit resident, who has close ties to his family, community and church. Justice was served,” Ramis J. Wadood, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Michigan, said.

However, Wadood said hundreds, if not thousands, of other immigrants are still being wrongly denied their legal rights.

“Because of that, we will not rest until every affected individual is allowed to exercise the same right to due process and has a chance to come home to their families,” Wadood asserted.

Lopez-Campos was among more than 1,400 immigrants arrested in Michigan by federal agents since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, vowing to “launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out.”

Most of those arrested had no criminal convictions according to records compiled by the Deportation Data Project.

Shahad Atiya, Lopez-Campos’s attorney who worked with the ACLU on the case, said the government had “no legitimate reason” to keep him detained.

“The cruelty was the point, but we’re glad that justice prevailed,” Atiya said.

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This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.