Family ordeal highlights importance of habeas corpus in immigration cases

As the Trump administration considered eliminating habeas corpus protections for immigrants without legal status this month, a San Diego lawyer used those same constitutional protections against unlawful arrest to get her client released from federal custody.

The immigration lawyer, Kerry Yianilos, said her client’s story underscores the importance of habeas corpus protections for immigrants caught up in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

On Jan. 27, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Yianilos’ client, Angela Mata Mendoza, during her early morning shift at an Escondido supermarket she has worked at for more than 10 years.

Yianilos was shocked by the arrest and Mata Mendoza’s imprisonment in the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

Mata Mendoza does not have a criminal record. She owns a home, has worked and paid taxes most of her life, is married to a U.S. citizen and has four U.S. citizen children.

She also cannot be deported under current federal law because she has an appeal pending in immigration court.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that Mata Mendoza was under a court order of supervision, which Yianilos described as the immigration equivalent of being out on bond. It’s an alternative to detention that an immigration judge grants to people who are determined to not be flight risks or public safety threats.

“They look at how rooted you are in the community, what family you have, your employment record, whether you have any criminal or other immigration offense,” Yianilos said.

An order of supervision also includes mandatory in-person check-ins with ICE agents. Mata Mendoza has never missed an inspection, she said.

Yianilos spent weeks calling and emailing ICE officials. Trying to figure out why her client was detained and how to get her out.

“I think that in the first month that she was at Otay Mesa Detention Center, I must have left over 30 voicemails, I can’t tell you how many emails,” she said. “No one would talk to me.”

Family hardship

Mata Mendoza’s arrest and prolonged detainment impacted her entire family, according to her husband Reuben Orozco Mata.

“We’ve been together 15 years,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve been apart.”

Overnight and without warning, Orozco Mata found himself being a single parent and the family’s sole provider.

Their 7-year-old daughter would constantly ask questions that Orozco Mata couldn’t answer, like, “Where’s mom?”

The stress of keeping up with mortgage payments, taking the kids to school, working 10-hour restaurant shifts and health complications due to diabetes overwhelmed Orozco Mata.

He tried to shield his daughter from the emotional toll.

“There were times when I’d go to the restroom just so I wouldn’t let her see me get emotional,” he said. “I’d have to run the shower so she wouldn’t hear anything.”

Orozco Mata said he was proud of his wife’s adult daughters for stepping up. They all took turns watching their younger sister while he worked and took him to some medical appointments.

While the family struggled outside, Mata Mendoza felt lost in the detention center.

“I felt like I was going to lose my mind every day,” she said.

Mata Mendoza would constantly ask Yianilos for updates on the case. But there was nothing to report. ICE would not respond to any of their questions.

ICE also did not respond to requests for comment from KPBS.

A way out

After two months of silence from ICE, and exhausting all other options, Yianilos filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court. Habeas corpus is a legal principle enshrined in the U.S. Constitution that requires a person being held in custody be brought before a judge to determine if their detention is legal.

“When they wouldn’t respond to me, the only remedy available is to go to a federal judge,” she said.

The petition asked a judge to order ICE to release her client and explain why she was detained in the first place. It gave the agency 30 days to respond.

On May 7, the night before their deadline to respond in court, ICE agents released Mata Mendoza from the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

That same week, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the Trump administration is considering suspending habeas corpus protections for immigrants without legal status.

More recently, senators asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the legal principle. It appeared Noem did not know what habeas corpus means. 

“Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus,” asked Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who was a lawyer before becoming a senator.

Hassan corrected Noem when she said habeas corpus is the president’s right to remove people from the country.

“Let me stop you,” Hassan said. “Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason.”

Yianilos is worried about what could happen to other detained immigrants if the Trump administration removes this constitutional protection.

“Is there nothing that they’re not going to try to mess with,” she said. “What’s the master plan here?”

The first thing Mata Mendoza did when she returned home was hug her daughters. “I told them, ‘Mom is back,”' she said.

Orozco Mata said he felt a dark cloud looming over the entire house while his wife was away.

“Now it’s like I can see the sun again, that’s how it feels,” he said.

The family is happy to be reunited. But they’re worried about other immigrants in similar situations who don’t have the help of a lawyer.