Judge: Family disappeared into an 'ICE black hole' for more than two weeks
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A judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release a Burnsville woman and her 8- and 14-year-old children who had been in ICE custody since Jan. 30.
In a habeas corpus petition filed in court on Feb. 12, an attorney wrote that the youngest child suffers from panic attacks and that their older sibling recently had foot surgery. Both children, says the petition, did not receive appropriate medical care while in custody.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis issued an order granting the family’s petition. In his order he expressed concern that the family’s attorney was unable to locate their clients for about two weeks.
Davis wrote “it is disturbing that an entire family unit can somehow disappear into an ICE blackhole for more than two weeks.”
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He went on to say, “This concern over the lack of transparency concerning petitioners’ whereabouts is exacerbated due to the children’s health issues, which respondents do not even mention in their brief. All the more reason to grant the petition.”
The family crossed the border into the United States from Mexico in 2024 and were detained and released. Davis said that at the time, government officials found that the family members “were neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk.”
In a Feb. 15 filing, a federal attorney argued the family is “not entitled to habeas relief.” The filing said the family was already in removal proceedings and said they are subject to mandatory detention.
The government attorney also said the family is still engaged in the removal process and has a hearing at the end of March.
Before her arrest, the woman had attended a regularly scheduled supervision appointment, according to the judicial findings. The case manager told her to return the next day with her children. “At that time, all three of them were arrested and detained. The arrest was warrantless.”
Two days after the order was released, the government followed up with a status report saying the family was released “as a family unit in Minnesota.” However, it didn’t say where the family had been detained.
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