Noncitizen accused of stealing bananas released

SACRAMENTO — An asylum-seeker sent to an immigration detention center in California City after being arrested and released on bond for shoplifting bananas from a store – which he says was due to a mistake at a self-checkout register after he twice asked for assistance – must be immediately released from custody. Immigration authorities violated the asylum-seeker’s procedural due process rights by detaining him for nearly seven months without providing him with a hearing, a federal judge in California ruled.