DETROIT – Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos was released from immigration detention today after a federal district court ordered his immediate release or a bond hearing in response to a case filed by the ACLU of Michigan.
A Detroit resident and father of five U.S. citizen children, Mr. Lopez-Campos has lived in the U.S. for 26 years, has many ties to his community and church, and has no criminal record. Yet, under a new nationwide Trump administration directive, he was arrested, detained for over two months, and unlawfully refused the opportunity to be released on bond while his immigration case proceeds.
That changed late last month when the ACLU of Michigan and co-counsel Shahad Atiya filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Lopez-Campos asserting that the Trump Administration’s new directive unlawfully denied his right to a bond hearing. The new directive attempts to reverse decades of government policy and practice and ignores a law that provides for bond hearings in Immigration Court. Left unchallenged, implementation of that directive threatens to put hundreds, or even thousands, of Michigan residents in mandatory immigration detention with no access to judicial review.
In response to our lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Brandy R. McMillion issued a decision confirming that the government’s new directive denying bond hearings “is not only wrong but also fundamentally unfair.”
Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos said this about his release:
“I am happy to finally be with my family with the help of my legal team. I hope to continue to fight my case.”
Ramis J. Wadood, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said this about the Mr. Lopez-Campos’s release:
“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.
But there are hundreds, if not thousands, of others still being wrongly denied what Juan just experienced: the opportunity to fight your immigration case from home. 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.”
Shahad Atiya, Mr. Lopez-Campos's immigration lawyer and a cooperating attorney with the ACLU, said this about the case:
"We are very pleased by Mr. Lopez-Campos’s release. The government had no legitimate reason to keep him locked up during his immigration case, a process that can take months, sometimes years. The cruelty was the point, but we’re glad that justice prevailed.”
Read about the case here.