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OMAHA, Neb. (CN) — A detainee swept up in a June 10 immigration raid at an Omaha meatpacking plant claims in a lawsuit filed Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not release her despite a judge’s order to do so.
Sabina Carmona-Lorenzo, 48, says in her complaint that an immigration judge granted her release on bond July 15, but she is still being held at the Lincoln County Detention Center in North Platte, Nebraska, about 274 miles from where she was taken into custody more than two months ago in Omaha.
Carmona-Lorenzo, who is represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, says in her complaint that ICE appears to be relying on a “novel interpretation” of its policy on allowing noncitizens to be released on bond, now saying that only those already admitted to the U.S. can be released from custody during removal proceedings, and everyone else is mandatorily detained under U.S. code.
This is a policy reversal, she claims. Previously, most individuals subject to removal proceedings who are found to not be a risk to the community could be released on bond.
“I wish no one had to live through this. It is horrible," she said in an ACLU Nebraska press release, through an interpreter. “I hope God gives me an opportunity to stay with my family and see my children graduate. I do not ask for anything else but to remain in the country to experience what I have worked so hard to accomplish for my children.”
On Tuesday, Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon issued an order to show cause, requiring defendants to demonstrate within three business days why a writ of habeas corpus should not be granted in the case.
Carmona-Lorenzo says in her complaint that she has been in the U.S. for more than a quarter century and is the mother of five U.S. citizens, one of whom serves on active duty in the military. The ACLU says another adult child has paused his college education in an attempt to support the family.
“Our client was granted bond by the immigration judge and has met every requirement for release, yet ICE is holding her without any individualized reason and without giving her a fair chance to challenge this decision,” Jennifer Houlden, acting legal director at the ACLU Nebraska, said in a press release. “Due process is not a suggestion; it is a constitutional right.”
ICE and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return requests for comment.
The ACLU is also representing Maria Reynosa Jacinto, who was arrested in the raid and held despite an immigration judge ordering her release.
On Tuesday, Bataillon, a Bill Clinton appointee, ordered her released in an 11-page memorandum and order.
“The governmental interest in the continued detention of these least-dangerous individuals, in contravention of the order of a neutral fact-finder, does not outweigh the liberty interest at stake,” Bataillon wrote. “Accordingly, the court agrees respondents’ invocation of the automatic stay provision to detain petitioner has violated her substantive due process rights.”
There have been several similar lawsuits in Nebraska and across the country. Floribertha Mayo Anicasio, who said she has lived in Nebraska 25 years, sued on July 25, saying ICE would not allow her release from custody despite a judge’s order. Yanier Garcia Jimenez, who has lived in Nebraska since 2019, sued on Aug. 1, claiming the same.
On Aug. 14, Bataillon ordered the release of Anicasio and Jimenez, and both cases have been closed.
The plaintiffs in all four cases assert they have had no previous legal troubles.
The raid on Glenn Valley Foods rocked Omaha, a city partially built on the backs of immigrant meatpackers since the late 19th century. It came at the heels of video circulating around the city of ICE agents arresting a man in the dining room of a local restaurant in front of patrons during Sunday brunch.
The scene of the Glenn Valley raid was tense, with some throwing rocks at a line of SUVs carrying federal agents, shattering a window, according to some reports.
The raid prompted a peaceful protest of about 200 individuals in South Omaha.
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