On Tuesday, lawyers for Daniel Ramirez Medina, one of the first DACA recipients detained under U.S. President Donald Trump's increasingly harsh immigration policy, said Ramirez would be released this week after six weeks in immigration detention.
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Ramirez could be released as early as Wednesday after Seattle, Washington immigration Judge John Odell ordered his release under a US$15,000 bond on Tuesday.
The decision is a welcome surprise given that many expected it would be difficult for Ramirez to win his bond application in an immigration court, given that these courts function as an internal administrative body of the Justice Department.
On Friday, a federal court judge refused to order Ramirez's release, instead ordering the 24-year-old father to seek bail in an immigration court rather than in the federal court system.
While the decision does not end Ramirez's fight to remain in the U.S. — he is currently fighting a deportation order in federal court — his release pending the resolution of his case is a hopeful turn in what many see as a harbinger of the fate of the almost 750,000 DACA recipients currently threatened by Trump's repressive immigration policies.
Ramirez was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in February despite the fact that he has legal status to live, work, and study in the U.S. under the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals program implemented by the Obama administration.
Under that program recipients' immigration status is reviewed every two years and generally re-approved as long as applicants have not broken any laws or are deemed a "danger" to society.
Given that Ramirez' status was renewed in 2016, and he has no convictions let alone criminal charges, his detention has raised the specter that Trump is — as many suspected — using his pledge to go after "bad hombres" as a fig leaf to target migrants of all stripes.
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While ICE agents claim they detained Ramirez because he is a gang member, and thus ineligible for status under DACA, Ramirez and his lawyers deny the accusation, saying it is based on a coerced statement and racist assumptions about his tattoos.&
Ramirez — who was brought from Mexico at age 7 and is the father to a 3-year-old U.S citizen — celebrated his 24th birthday in immigration detention and recently wrote about his experience in the Washington Post.
"My parents brought me to the United States because they wanted for me what all parents want for their kids — a good shot at life. Dreamers like me aren't asking for handouts. We want the government to stand by its promise and let us contribute to our communities and take care of our families without being sent back to a country we don't know," he wrote.
"I am hopeful that I will have a future in this country, but I know that this case is not just about me. Hundreds of thousands of dreamers are questioning just what sort of protection the government's promise provides. If I can be arrested and detained without any evidence, what will happen to them?"