‘Held unlawfully’: U.S. judge sides with women held in Nebraska ICE operation
By Bill Schammert
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OMAHA, Neb. (KETV) — Two women, arrested in the Glenn Valley Foods ICE operation on June 10, have been ordered to be released from detention.
They’ve been held in the Lincoln County Jail since the mid-June.
U.S. District Court of Nebraska judge Joseph Bataillon wrote that the detention of Floribertha Mayo Anicasio and Yanier Garcia Jimenez, both from Mexico, violated their due process rights.
According to their defense attorneys, both women came to the U.S. from Mexico fleeing violence; Mayo Anicasio in 1999 and Garcia Jimenez in 2019. Their attorneys allege both women have families in Omaha and, along with being financial providers, are also caretakers.
The Homeland Security Investigations operation at Glenn Valley Foods was the result of an investigation into stolen social security numbers. More than 70 people were detained, some immediately deported, some released, and others sent to the Lincoln County Jail to await immigration proceedings.
The legal battle between the women and the Department of Homeland Security stems from a July 10 ruling from an immigration judge. The judge gave both women a $15,000 bond, which was paid.
DHS immediately filed its intent to appeal, using a ruling that was established in October 2001. That blocked the release of both women.
Defense attorneys then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court of Nebraska. In the 20-page filing, they challenged the legality of DHS appealing the bond order, writing the women are being confined in a way that’s “indistinguishable from criminal incarceration.”
They also wrote, “The government has no special or compelling justification to continue detaining the [women] and certainly not an interest that outweighs [their] interest in avoiding government restraint.”
In their response to the women challenging the stay, DHS wrote “The plenary power of Congress and the Executive Branch over immigration necessarily encompasses immigration detention, because the authority to detain is elemental to the authority to deport, and because public safety is at stake.”
Judge Bataillon sided with the women and ordered both parties to file a status report by Friday, August 14 at 5 p.m. to confirm they’ve been released.
In his conclusion, Judge Bataillon wrote, “By permitting DHS to unliterally extend the detention of an individual, in contravention of the findings of an agent (the Immigration Judge) properly delegated the authority to make such a determination, 8 C.F.R § 1003.19(i)(2) exceeds the statutory authority Congress gave to the Attorney General.”
Neither woman is currently listed on the Lincoln County Jail inmate roster.
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