The ACLU of Michigan has filed a federal lawsuit demanding the release of eight longtime Michigan residents who remain in immigration custody without bond hearings under a new Trump administration directive that attorneys say violates the U.S. Constitution and decades of immigration law.
The lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Detroit, argues that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is unlawfully detaining immigrants who were apprehended “in the interior” of the country and denying them the bond hearings they are entitled to under federal law. Some of the immigrants were detained after routine traffic stops.
Among those held is Jose Daniel Contreras-Cervantes, a 33-year-old father of three American citizen children. He has lived in Michigan since he was a teenager.
Contreras-Cervantes was diagnosed last year with chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare and life-threatening cancer, and requires daily chemotherapy and specialized care. After he was pulled over by a Macomb County sheriff’s deputy in August for allegedly driving a few miles over the speed limit, federal immigration officers took him into custody.
His detention has cut him off from his medical team and caused severe lapses in treatment, according to the lawsuit. Court filings say he received no chemotherapy from Aug. 5 to Aug. 27, and he has since been given different medication than the one prescribed by his doctor. His wife, Lupita Contreras, said his absence has devastated their family.
“It is hard enough knowing that my husband’s life will be cut short given his prognosis,” she said. “But it is torture for me and my children to lose precious time with him because ICE locked him up away from us. I agonize over whether he’s getting the care he needs to stay alive. My sons witnessed their father being taken away and were not even allowed to say goodbye.”
Another petitioner, Fredy De Los Angeles-Flores, 46, of Pontiac, has lived in the U.S. for 15 years and is the sole caregiver to his 13-year-old U.S. citizen son. He was arrested at a gas station in June while immigration agents were searching for someone else. He has no criminal history beyond minor traffic infractions. His detention, attorneys said, has been traumatic for his son, who relied on him for daily stability.
The ACLU lawsuit argues that ICE is using a policy meant for people just arriving at the border to detain immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years. For decades, those who were detained were entitled to bond hearings, where a judge could decide whether they should stay locked up or return home to their families while their case moved forward.
Federal courts around the country, including multiple judges in Michigan, have already rejected the government’s directive. In August, U.S. District Judge Brandy McMillion ruled in a similar case that ICE had unlawfully detained another Michigan resident, Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos, and ordered his release or a bond hearing within seven days. The government quickly released him from custody.
Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said the new ICE directive is part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to pressure immigrants into abandoning their cases.
“This new ICE directive is one of the most dangerous and far-reaching abuses of power that we’ve seen in this Administration’s mass deportation campaign,” Aukerman said in a statement. “The Administration’s goal is to break people’s spirits—to lock people up and make them so desperate that they agree to leave their loved ones. The cruelty of this new directive is not an accident. Cruelty is the point.”
Attorneys note that none of the petitioners has a criminal record beyond traffic violations. Several are parents of American citizen children. Others have lived in Michigan for decades, some since they were babies. All are being detained in facilities in Michigan and Ohio.
The lawsuit asks the court to order their immediate release or at least require bond hearings within seven days.
For Lupita Contreras, the case is about more than her husband’s health.
“I will not give up on my husband until he is back home with his children and in his community, where he belongs.” she said. “Kids need their dads and moms. Families belong together. And that’s true no matter which family members have a U.S. passport.”