A nursing mother from Lake Elmo was released from federal immigration custody on Tuesday, the first ruling of its kind in Minnesota since July, when the Trump administration declared millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for release on bond.
Antonia Aguilar Maldonado, 27, had been held for three weeks at the Kandiyohi County jail in Willmar, where she had no contact with her two children and was forced to throw away breast milk she was pumping for her toddler.
At Tuesday’s court hearing, Gloria Contreras Edin, a St. Paul attorney who is representing Aguilar Maldonado delivered the news over the phone. “She could hardly talk,” she said of Aguilar Maldonado’s reaction. “She’s just thankful.”
Aguilar Maldonado’s case is the first habeas petition to successfully obtain a federal judge’s approval for release since a July 8 memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ordered officials to hold undocumented immigrants in detention until their removal cases were resolved.
Several other such cases are working their way through Minnesota’s federal district court.
Aguilar Maldonado was arrested July 17. She came to the U.S. a nearly decade ago from El Salvador, as an unaccompanied minor without legal status. Aside from her illegal entry to the U.S., she had no other criminal history.
During her time in custody, she pumped her breast milk daily, refusing to let it dry up. Shortly after the judge’s ruling, her attorneys informed Aguilar Maldonado on the phone and she cried.
“More importantly, she’s just happy to be reunited with her children and her family,” Contreras Edin said.
Aguilar Maldonado will be released and reunited with her family later today, her lawyer said.
“When I am in there pumping, I feel nothing but sadness,” she wrote in a letter as part of her habeas petition for release while her immigration case worked its way through the court system.
Fewer immigrants released on bond
Since the new policy was issued in July, judges and federal officials have denied bond to many undocumented immigrants in detention who probably would have been granted release a month ago, according to several Twin Cities immigration attorneys.
“We’re seeing hundreds of people across the United States mandatorily detained even though they’re doing everything right,” Contreras Edin said.
On July 31, Fort Snelling Immigration Court Judge Kalin Ivany granted Aguilar Maldonado’s request for bail, set at $10,000, and release from custody, according to court documents. The Department of Homeland Security immediately filed an appeal based on the new policy guidelines, Contreras Edin said, forcing Aguilar Maldonado to remain detained.
In June in Minnesota, six or seven people were granted bond and released from ICE custody on a daily basis, according to Advocates for Human Rights, a Minneapolis nonprofit that represents low-income clients on legal matters, including immigration. The nonprofit’s volunteers attend immigration court hearings on most days.
But since early July, volunteers have only seen three people released on bond that month from ICE custody. Two of them had overstayed their visas.
“It’s a whiplash,” said Hannah Brown, a Twin Cities immigration attorney who is also representing Aguilar Maldonado. “This is not something I could have predicted, because it is so contrary to what the plain reading of the law says.”
A major change in the federal approach
For decades, Immigration Court judges decided whether to grant bond and release from custody based on the level of flight risk and danger to public safety. Some immigrants were not eligible for bail because they were arrested shortly after entering the United States without legal status. Others had committed certain crimes.
During bond hearings, Immigration Court judges review evidence in each case to see how long the person has been in the United States and whether they have a criminal history before determining if they should be released, as well as the bond amount.
Apartment leases, letters of support from employers and birth certificates of their children born in the United States are examples of evidence, said Esteban Rivera, a Minneapolis immigration attorney.
Aguilar Maldonado entered the United States when she was about 17. She worked as a commercial painter and lived with her family in Lake Elmo.
Her husband was arrested and detained by ICE at the same time she was.
“I have never been away from my babies, especially for this long,” read her letter, included in court documents.
While in detention, a relative cared for children. In her habeas petition, she said her 22-month-old now eats solid foods, but still relies on her breast milk because other types of milk upset the toddler’s stomach.
“Being told to let my milk dry up makes me uncomfortable, especially [coming] from the medical staff,” she wrote. “I will not let my milk dry up, because my baby needs it.”
Immigration attorney: ‘People would rather give up …’
In early July, Twin Cities immigration attorneys started to see Minnesota Immigration Court judges and federal officials pushing new Trump administration policy guidelines.
On May 15, the Board of Immigration Appeals, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, issued a ruling in a court case stating that undocumented immigrants in ICE custody are no longer eligible for bond and release from custody. That led to rulings by Immigration Court judges across the country that undocumented immigrants were ineligible for bail.
“This has never been the practice for over 30-some odd years,” said Linus Chan, an immigration attorney and director of the Detainee Rights Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School. “It has always been understood -– up until this summer -– that those folks are eligible to ask for bond.”
The ICE policy memo emailed to federal officials on July 8 included instructions for stepping up measures to keep undocumented immigrants in custody. It stated that “all applicants for admission” — meaning undocumented immigrants who entered the United States without inspection — are not eligible for release from ICE custody.
“The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities — and they used many loopholes to do so,” Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an email to Sahan Journal. “President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not provide further information to corroborate its claims, and did not respond to a Sahan Journal request for an interview.
The new policy guidelines apply to any undocumented immigrant in ICE detention, no matter how long they’ve been in the country and whether or not they have a criminal history. The policy also applies to immigrants who entered the United States on parole, meaning they were granted temporary permission to enter and stay in the country due to “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”
Immigrants with certain visas, such as a tourist visa, or those who have obtained lawful permanent residence, also known as a green card, are not affected by the new policy guidelines.
Immigration attorneys say undocumented immigrants in ICE detention are on a faster track for deportation because they face shorter deadlines and lack access to effective legal counsel.
“When people are detained, oftentimes it’s very hard on people mentally, and people will sometimes rather give up and get deported then continue being stuck in jail,” said Kelsey Allen, a Minneapolis immigration attorney.
Immigration attorneys say they’ve seen Immigration Court judges grant their clients release from ICE custody – including Aguilar Maldonado – only to have ICE immediately file an appeal to force them to stay. Or they’ll see judges deny bond during the court hearing, citing the May 15 ruling.
It’s possible that a nationwide temporary pause on the new policy guidelines could happen, according to local immigration attorneys. But, Brown noted, a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court made it more difficult to secure a nationwide pause.
Several people across the country, including a few in Minnesota, have filed a habeas petition pushing back on the new policy guidelines.
“There are lots of organizations doing really amazing work trying to fight this in every way possible,” Brown said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how long Antonia Aguilar Maldonado was held in the Kandiyohi County jail and the number of ICE detainees who received bond in June.
