Federal Court Orders Release of Detained Cuban Asylee in Habeas Victory

Case Background

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted our petition for a writ of habeas corpus and ordered Mr. Humberto Jimenez-Perez’s immediate release from immigration detention.

Mr. Jimenez-Perez is a 62-year-old Cuban national who has lived in the United States for more than four decades. After entering the country as a teenager, he built a life here, including raising a family of U.S. citizens.

Although he has been subject to a decades-old removal order, the government has been unable to deport him for over 25 years. In June 2025, just days before a scheduled medical procedure and weeks before his anticipated release from California Department Corrections and Rehabilitation custody, immigration authorities abruptly re-detained him and transferred him to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.

What followed was months of prolonged detention under increasingly dire conditions affecting Mr. Jimenez-Perez’s health.

Prolonged Detention Without a Realistic Path to Removal

The government continued to detain Mr. Jimenez-Perez even though there was no meaningful likelihood that he could be removed from the United States in the foreseeable future.

Under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), immigration detention after a final removal order cannot be indefinite Continued detention beyond six months requires justification from the government. Once removal is no longer reasonably foreseeable, continued detention violates federal law and due process principles.

Judge Robart of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington found that Mr. Jimenez-Perez had already been detained for more than eight months, there was no evidence that any country, including Cuba, would accept him, and the government could not show that removal was likely in the near future. Based on these facts, the court held that Mr. Jimenez-Perez’s continued detention was unlawful and ordered his release within 24 hours.

This case also highlighted the human cost of prolonged immigration detention.

Why This Decision Matters

This ruling reinforces an important constitutional boundary: the government cannot detain people indefinitely when removal is not realistically possible.

The case is particularly significant for individuals with long-standing removal orders where diplomatic, legal, or practical barriers make deportation unlikely. It affirms that:

• Immigration detention has limits;
• The government bears the burden of justifying continued custody; and
• Courts can intervene when detention becomes indefinite and unlawful.

MHB’s Commitment

Lauren Freidenberg-McBride and Anna Deal, along with MHB’s incredible support staff Andrew Drake and Itzel Barajas, represented Mr. Jimenez-Perez pro bono. This case reflects our firm’s ongoing commitment to protecting the rights of immigrants and challenging unlawful detention practices.

No one should remain in custody indefinitely without a lawful basis. This decision is an important step toward ensuring accountability and upholding fundamental constitutional protections.