A federal judge in Buffalo has ordered the release of a 19-year-old Venezuelan man who was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following an immigration court hearing in May about his asylum request.
Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo of the U.S District Court, Western District of New York, ruled that federal authorities must release Oliver Eloy Mata Velasquez from the Buffalo Federal Immigration Detention Center while his lawsuit is being considered.
“While it’s an enormous relief that Oliver can return to his home in Buffalo, ICE should have never detained him in the first place,” said Amy Belsher, director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, in a news release. “As the Court rightly found, Oliver’s detention was entirely unjustified and violated his constitutional right to due process. We will continue fighting the Trump administration’s attempts to arbitrarily arrest people en masse who are following the rules by showing up for their scheduled court hearings.”
People are also reading…
A spokeswoman for the New York Civil Liberties Union said Mata Velasquez was released after Vilardo’s decision on Wednesday.
Mata Velasquez was among thousands of immigrants arrested and detained in recent months by ICE agents under a Trump administration policy targeting courthouse enforcement.
In a 40-page ruling, Vilardo noted it wasn’t his role to decide on the merits of a Department of Homeland Security program − instituted in 2022 under the Biden administration and canceled by President Trump − to invite Venezuelans like Mata Velasquez into the U.S.
But the judge said Mata Velasquez deserved to be released immediately because he was likely to win the argument that his detention is unlawful and violates his due process rights. He also said Mata Velasquez was being irreparably harmed by being detained.
“When he arrived in the United States, DHS told him that he could remain here on parole for two years; in fact, the government gave him a work authorization and assigned him a social security number,” Vilardo said in his decision. “And since his arrival almost a year ago, Mata Velasquez has done everything asked of him. He appeared for every appointment and court date. He committed no crimes. He did what he was supposed to do.”
Mata Velasquez came to the U.S. in September and declared that he was seeking asylum. He was inspected, released by border officials to his cousin, granted discretionary humanitarian parole and given notice to appear at Buffalo Immigration Court on May 21.
At the time, the Department of Homeland Administration under the Biden administration had in place a parole program, started in 2022, that allowed as many as 24,000 Venezuelans to enter the U.S. for up to two years to seek asylum and receive work authorization.
In March, DHS issued a notice in the Federal Register that it was terminating parole for anyone admitted through the parole program for Venezuelans, as well as similar programs for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, according to court papers. The DHS notice was being challenged in a federal court in Massachusetts.
Mata Velasquez’s hearing in May was supposed to be a routine check-in with the court, and an immigration judge adjourned his case to Feb. 6 to allow Mata Velasquez time to get a lawyer and file an asylum application.
But his visit to the court ended up being far from routine. As he exited an elevator to the courthouse lobby, Mata Velasquez was greeted by four ICE agents who arrested him, according to court papers.
Lawyers with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York sued the federal government June 12 on behalf of Mata Velasquez, arguing that his arrest and detention violated multiple laws, including the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Among those named as defendants in the lawsuit are: Stephen Kurzdorfer, acting field office director of the Buffalo Field Office, Enforcement and Removal Operations of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement; Joseph Freden, deputy field office director of the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility; Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement; Kristi Noem, secretary of Homeland Security; and Pam Bondi, U.S. attorney general.
“As the Court noted in their decision, Oliver followed all the rules,” said Sarah Gillman, director of Strategic U.S. Litigation at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “ICE’s decision to arrest him at the courthouse door wasn’t just duplicitous and illegal − it’s a disturbing sign of how far this administration will go to carry out its anti-immigrant agenda. We’re grateful that the Court did right by Oliver and we hope this decision sends a strong message.”
Lawyers for Mata Velasquez filed an emergency motion requesting a preliminary injunction from the court ordering his release, which Vilardo granted.
Courts have identified only two legitimate purposes for immigration detention: mitigating flight risk and preventing danger to the community, the lawyers argued in court papers.
Mata Velasquez is neither a risk to flee or cause harm, they said.
