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OMAHA — A Nebraska U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee has been reunited with her sons in Schuyler after an Omaha immigration court judge granted her release on bond while she battles deportation proceedings.
Lorena Alarcon-Alarcon’s return to Schuyler followed an earlier order by a federal judge in Omaha that she was entitled to a bond hearing. Federal officials had denied the hearing based upon a relatively new interpretation of immigration law.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska filed a federal habeas petition lawsuit on behalf of Alarcon-Alarcon, arguing, as it has in several similar Nebraska cases, that denial of a bond hearing violates the Immigration and Nationality Act and a federal judge’s order in a class action lawsuit that vacated ICE’s mandatory detention policy.
Monday, an ACLU in a statement said Alarcon-Alarcon’s release means she’ll be able to care for her family while her legal team works through deportation proceedings. Jamel J.W. Connor, an ACLU attorney, said she was thrilled that the mom is back with her sons, two of whom are adults and a third who is a teen.
“This is what every person taken into immigration custody deserves: a deliberative, individual custody assessment,” Connor said. “In this case, that made all the difference for Lorena and her family. That is what we mean when we talk about the importance of due process.”
Alarcon-Alarcon is a citizen of Mexico who has been in the U.S. about 25 years, much of that in Schuyler, the ACLU said. She had been held by ICE at the Lincoln County Detention Center in North Platte since January, following a December arrest on suspicion of a misdemeanor domestic violence assault.
ICE “encountered” Alarcon-Alarcon during “routine jail screenings in Platte County, Nebraska,” according to a court record. ICE at the time issued an arrest warrant, took her into custody and initiated removal proceedings.
The family declined interviews but the woman’s oldest son, Luis Gonzalez, in a statement, thanked the legal team and Prairielands Freedom Fund, which helped financially with bail.
“While we are relieved and thankful that our mom is home, we know there are many other families still going through similar situations,” Gonzalez said. “We hope that more families receive the same kind of support and compassion that helped bring our mom back home to us.”
The number of writ of habeas corpus petitions filed by immigrants who assert their mandatory detention is illegal have risen to historic highs. ProPublica, which has been tracking the trend nationally, reports that immigrants filed more habeas cases in the first 13 months of the second Trump administration than in the past three presidential administrations combined.
In Nebraska, according to the ProPublica tracker, about 66 detention challenges have been filed since last year on behalf of migrants in the state.
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