More. . .

Clinic Menu

Immigrants’ Rights Clinic: Federal Litigation

Trabelsi v. Crawford (Eastern District of Virginia), 24-cv-01509-RDA-LRV, August 28, 2024.

Nizar Trabelsi is a Tunisian national who was arrested on September 13, 2001, for plotting an attack against a US military base in Belgium. He claims that he is innocent and that he confessed because his interrogators told him if he did not, he would be sent to Guantanamo and tortured. After being convicted in Belgium and serving his ten-year sentence, he was extradited to the United States to be prosecuted for the same crime.

During this process, the United States promised Belgium that it would not return Mr. Trabelsi to Tunisia but would instead return him to Belgium due to the risk of torture and the fact that he had been sentenced to a ten-year sentence in absentia for his alleged crime. Belgium presumably believed that he would be convicted and sentenced to life in the United States and it would not have to accept him back. The European Court of Human Rights subsequently declared his extradition illegal and awarded his family EUR 150,000 in damages and ordered the Belgium government to demand his return after his prosecution. In a shocking turn of events, in July 2023, Mr. Trabelsi was acquitted by a jury in Washington, DC. He was immediately transferred to ICE custody and issued a notice to appear.

IRC represented Mr. Trabelsi in his removal proceedings over five days of trial in December 2023 and January 2024. In August 2024, the Immigration Judge granted Mr. Trabelsi deferral of removal to Tunisia and ordered his return to Belgium. The government appealed and in February 2025, the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed the Immigration Judge’s decision.

In addition, in August 2024, IRC co-counseled with the ACLU to bring a federal habeas petition and complaint for injunctive relief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia related to his unlawful detention and egregious conditions of confinement. That lawsuit is still pending. Mr. Trabelsi won further relief from Belgian courts and is currently awaiting transfer to Belgium where he will be able to reunite with his family.

Alexa Schneider, ’24; Saloni Jaiswal, ’25; Sahar Omer, ’25; Liam Haffey, ’25; Vicente Alayo-Matos, ’25; and Mariam Nadi, ’26 have worked on the case.

Press Coverage

Court Documents

Habeas Petition, Trabelsi v. Crawford 24-cv-01509, filed August 28, 2024. (PDF)

Argueta Caal v. United States, 23-cv-00598, Northern District of Illinois

IRC represents a father and son who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance Policy. Under this policy, the government separated thousands of migrant families as a means of deterring migration and penalizing asylum seekers. Although President Biden officially rescinded this policy in 2021, these families continue to suffer from long-lasting trauma. Among thousands of families harmed by this policy.

Selvin Sr. and his then 16-year-old son, Selvin Jr., fled Guatemala after receiving multiple credible death threats from local gangs that wanted to force Selvin Jr. to join their gangs. After an arduous 18-day journey on foot, car, and bus to the border to lawfully seek asylum, they were quickly separated and put into different detention facilities in horrendous and inhumane conditions. Selvin Sr. was subsequently deported.

After nearly two years of separation, Selvin Sr. reunited with his son in Chicago in 2020 after a federal court found his deportation unlawful and permitted him to return to the United States. However, the father and son still suffer from long-lasting physical and emotional trauma.

IRC filed a federal lawsuit in February 2023 under the Federal Tort Claims Act seeking compensation for their extended separation. In February 2024, the IRC reached a settlement that will allow the family to recover and rebuild their lives.

Alice Thompson, ’23; Jace Lee, ’23; Fernando Stepensky, ’23; Allison O’Connor, ’24; Diego Quesada, ’25; and Daniella Apodaca, ’25 participated in the litigation.

Press Coverage

Court Documents

Ameen v. Jennings, No. 22-cv-00140-WHO (Northern District of California) and Ameen v. Andrews, No. 25-cv-00281-JLT-HBK

In January 2022, IRC filed a federal habeas action in the Northern District of California on behalf of Omar Ameen, a refugee of Iraq who the government falsely accused of being a member of ISIS. After trying and failing to extradite Mr. Ameen to Iraq based on murder charges that a magistrate judge found were not supported by probable cause, the government initiated removal proceedings to strip him of his refugee status. After the immigration judge rejected the government’s terrorism allegations a second time and granted Mr. Ameen withholding of removal to Iraq, Mr. Ameen sought release from detention but was denied bond.

The district court granted Mr. Ameen a second bond hearing in Ameen v. Jennings, No. 22-CV-00140-WHO, 2022 WL 1157900 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 19, 2022). The government appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

After a lengthy mediation, the parties agreed to a settlement which limited the amount of time that Mr. Ameen will be forced to remain in detention and provided for secure immigration status for his wife and three children.

In March 2025, IRC filed another habeas petition arguing that the government had failed to find a country to send Mr. Ameen to and that his detention had become unconstitutionally prolonged. In April 2025, under pressure from the court, the government reached an agreement to resettle Mr. Ameen in Rwanda. He reports being happy to be free and he is adjusting to life in his new country.

Elise LeCrone, ’22; Alice Thompson, ’23; Allison O’Connor, ’24; Rupan Bharanidaran, ’24; Sophia Houdaigui, ’24; Hee Soo Jung, ’25; Nathan Hensley, ’25; and Anna Hori, ’25, worked on the case.

Press Coverage

Court Documents

Navarro v. Will County, No. 23-cv-01286-HDL, Northern District of Illinois

In March 2022, the Clinic filed a motion seeking the release of a Chicago resident being held by Will County on a material witness warrant as an end run around the Illinois Way Forward Act, which prohibits local jurisdictions from detaining non-citizens for civil immigration violations. After the Illinois Attorney General Office intervened, Will County agreed not to turn him over to ICE and released him instead. He has now reunited with his family. The parties reached an out of court settlement in February 2025.

Johan Gonzalez, ’23, Renee Girard, ’24; Hee Soo Jung, ’25; Anna Hori, ’25; Nathan Hensley, ’25; Daniella Stoltz, ’26, participated in the litigation.

Press Coverage

In March 2023, IRC filed a lawsuit against Will County under Section 1983 for the unlawful detention. Centro de Trabajadores Unidos (CTU), one of IRC’s community partners, held a press conference to draw attention to the issue of local non-compliance with Illinois sanctuary laws.

Press Coverage

Court Documents

Reyes-Herrera v. Flaitz, 6:19-cv-06257-EAW-MJP (Western District of New York)

IRC represents Macario Reyes-Herrera, a former long-time resident of the United States, in a lawsuit against the NYS state troopers who turned him over to border patrol and caused his subsequent deportation. After failing to succeed in their claim of qualified immunity on summary judgment, the Defendants offered a generous settlement to avoid going to trial. Qualified immunity has received national attention of late as a doctrine that has allowed police officers to violate people’s constitutional rights with impunity. It is rarely overcome in court, making IRC’s victory particularly important. The Court held that it was clearly established that police officers cannot racially profile individuals of Hispanic descent and arrest them solely on the unsubstantiated suspicion that they have committed an immigration violation. IRC students conducted depositions and drafted the motion for summary judgment and opposition. In July 2022, Mr. Reyes-Herrera accepted a settlement from New York State on the eve of trial. IRC continues to represent the plaintiff in his attempts to return to the United States to reunite with his family.

Rebecca Ritchie, ’20; Victor Hollenberg, ’21; Ana Luquerna, ’21; Suzannah Ranzo, ’22, participated in the litigation.

Case Documents

Hon. Elizabeth Wolford, Decision and Order, 6:19-cv-06257-EAW-MJP, May 13, 2021. (PDF)

Rocha-Sanchez v. Kolitwenzew, 2:20-cv-02362-SEM-TSH (Central District of Illinois)

IRC filed a Petition for Habeas Corpus on behalf of Irbin Rocha-Sanchez, a lawful permanent resident who had been detained for fifteen months while waiting for a decision on his removal case. The Petition alleged claims under the Due Process Clause, arguing that he could not be detained without an individualized bond hearing. On February 8, 2021, the Court agreed that his detention violated the Due Process Clause and ordered him released within 14 days unless the government proved by clear and convincing evidence that he was a danger to the community or a flight risk. Mr. Rocha-Sanchez has a 9-year-old daughter that he has not seen in a year because of the pandemic, and he himself caught COVID-19 while in detention.

Patrick Berning-O’Neill, ’21, argued the case in January 2021.

Press Coverage

Elvia Malagón, Coronavirus outbreak hits immigration detainees before vaccine eligibility opens for jails in Illinois, Chicago Sun-Times, Jan. 31, 2021.

Case Documents​

Al Otro Lado v. DHS, 2:20-cv-05191 (Central District of California)

In June 2020, IRC sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on behalf Al Otro Lado (AOL), a binational border rights organization, to seek information about DHS’s COVID-19 response at two California detention centers, Adelanto Detention Center and Otay Detention Center, as well as border patrol stations in California, as well as retaliation against detainees who complained about DHS’s response.

In September 2020, Hon. Otis T. Wright III, U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California, granted a motion for preliminary injunction and ordered critical information released within 6 weeks. DHS had requested 28 months to process and release the records, and claimed that the pandemic had overwhelmed its ability to keep up with requests for information.

At oral argument, Judge Wright noted that DHS could have released immigrants from detention at the beginning of the pandemic. Having declined to do so, DHS’s treatment of immigrant detainees would be “brought out into the sunlight…sooner rather than later.”

To date, more than 5,000 DHS detainees have contracted COVID-19 and at least 7 have died of the disease.

Press Coverage

Judge Orders DHS To Release Records Regarding COVID-19 Outbreaks, KPBS, Sept. 23, 2020.

Case Documents

Hassoun v. Searls, 19-cv-390, Western District of New York

The First Legal Challenge to the USA PATRIOT ACT, 8 U.S.C. 1226a

IRC represented Adham Amin Hassoun, a stateless Palestinian who became the first person that the government detained under a never-before-used provision of the USA PATRIOT Act. After the district court ruled that due process required the government to prove by clear-and-convincing evidence that Mr. Hassoun was a danger to national security before indefinitely detaining him, the government conceded that it could not prove its case. Nevertheless, the government argued that the court erred in engaging in any inquiry into the government’s allegations whatsoever. In a win for due process and separation of powers, the court rejected that argument and ordered Mr. Hassoun’s release.

Facing the prospect of releasing Mr. Hassoun in the United States, the government reached an agreement with Rwanda to accept him as a permanent resident. He has now been resettled and is enjoying his freedom. IRC continues to litigate a motion for sanctions against the government for hiding and destroying evidence proving Mr. Hassoun’s innocence. IRC co-counseled on the case with the ACLU and the MacArthur Justice Center.

Brian Zagrocki, ’20, presented oral argument on the case and Samantha Becci, ’20, prepared witnesses for the trial.

Press Coverage

Case Documents