On April 14, 2025, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area filed a habeas corpus petition in the Eastern District of California, seeking an emergency order to block the transfer and summary removal of Y.G.H. (a pseudonym), a 22-year-old Venezuelan farmworker detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California. ICE had celebrated the agency’s arrest of Y.G.H. on social media, mischaracterizing Y.G.H as a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.

Y.G.H. faces imminent expulsion under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), a 1798 wartime authority weaponized by the Trump administration to skip judicial review and forcibly disappear immigrants accused of ties to Tren de Aragua to places such as the El Salvadoran CECOT prison, where detainees face indefinite, life-threatening detention under horrific conditions. The petition argues that Y.G.H. is entitled to due process under the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that requires the government to ensure that immigrant detainees have notice and a fair opportunity to challenge the government’s designation of them as “alien enemies” under the AEA.

 On April 15, 2025 a federal judge in the Eastern District of California issued an order temporarily halting Y.G.H.’s removal. Prior to that order, ICE had transferred Y.G.H. from Golden State Annex, a California detention facility to a detention center in Texas. The judge extended his order preventing removal until the Court can rule on the government’s motion to dismiss the case. 

Important Documents

Habeas Corpus Petition and Complaint for Injunctive Relief

Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion for Temporary Restraining Order

Plaintiff’s Opposition to Motion to Dismiss