Immigrants who win release from detention through habeas corpus petitions are being arrested again by ICE, in some cases before they leave the building. The Guardian reported on November 2 that it had identified at least 20 such cases nationwide in the last year, from court records, attorneys and media reports. More than 91,000 habeas petitions have been filed, according to research by ProPublica that the Guardian cited.
“We've seen a very, very sharp increase in people who are released on habeas petitions, only to be very rapidly re-detained, often in violation of the federal court's order,” said Bridget Pranzatelli, an attorney with the National Immigration Project. One of her clients, Akram Mahmoud Omar, a 77-year-old Palestinian man who had a heart attack in detention, was arrested again within 10 days of his release.
In Minnesota, MPR News confirmed seven instant re-arrests. Milton Saltos Velasquez was told around noon on October 19 that he was being released under a judge's order; he said he did not get a foot outside the Whipple Federal Building before he was arrested again. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan wrote that ICE “failed to release” him, “thereby violating” the order, and said ICE must release him “immediately” or the government could face sanctions. Agents driving him to a county jail turned around.
After another such re-arrest on September 9, Bryan wrote that treating it as a release “would render habeas relief meaningless.” Other courts have gone further or moved more slowly. In October the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited a “demonstrated pattern of re-detaining” people granted habeas relief, the Guardian reported, and a federal judge in Louisiana held a senior immigration official in contempt in the case of Ibrahim Mohammed, re-arrested three times by ICE. In Minnesota, Chief Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump nominee, wrote in an October 1 order that “perhaps” a re-arrest had violated his order but that he needed more information.
The Department of Homeland Security rejects the premise. “ICE complies with all lawful court orders. When an illegal alien is ordered released by a judge, that does not immunize the alien from immigration enforcement for all time,” a spokesperson told MPR News. “Instead, if ICE does not appeal the ruling, it may seek to rearrest the alien in a way that complies with the judicial decision. To suggest that ICE cannot do this is nothing short of sabotage.”
Attorneys told the Guardian they believe some re-detentions are tied to the administration's push to deport people to third countries; see Courts Found Trump's Third-Country Deportation Process Unlawful, and the Supreme Court Let It Resume While It Takes Up the Case. Others are re-arrested with no apparent plan for deportation, the Guardian reported. Just Security's Immigration Habeas Tracker, which focuses on federal judges' findings of government misconduct toward the courts, includes a broader category, “Continued/Renewed Detention Despite Court Order,” for cases where a petitioner “remained detained, was re-detained, or was held under a new rationale despite a court order.” The text used here is dated as of June 22, 2026, so it predates the autumn cases above. For an earlier dispute over a judge's order and an ICE arrest, see ICE Arrested a Man at a Manhattan Immigration Court the Day After a Federal Judge Ordered Those Arrests Paused.