A federal judge on Wednesday ruled the Trump administration’s detention of a woman detained by immigration agents at a North Center day care last week is “unlawful” because she has not been given a preliminary hearing.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy C. Daniel ordered the government hold a bond hearing Diana Santillana Galeano within the next week, answering Galeano’s attorney’s habeas petition. Galeano was pulled by armed federal agents on Nov. 5 from inside Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center at 2550 W. Addison St.
Video captured two agents dragging Galeano out of the daycare around 7 a.m. as she told them she had documentation, yelling “Yo tengo papeles.” Armed agents entered the center without a warrant and went room to room searching while children were present, Ald. Matt Martin said last week.
Galeano will remain in custody in Clark County, Indiana, until a bond hearing before an immigration judge, which is to take place before Nov. 18. The government is to report to Daniel within two days of that deadline to provide an update on her release.
“The Court has recognized that Diana and scores of others like her should not be in custody indefinitely,” said attorney Charlie Wysong, who represents Galeano. “This is an important step on Diana’s path to returning home where she belongs.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called it a “desperate Hail Mary attempt” to stop Galeano from being deported, and accused her of ” reportedly facilitating” the “smuggling” of her children into the country.
In an amicus brief filed in September, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 19 other attorneys general urged a federal court to strike down a Department of Homeland Security policy denying bond hearings to detained immigrants.
The policy was implemented in July as a new interpretation of an existing law that says immigrants in the U.S. without legal status “shall be detained” after their arrest, according to The Washington Post. In a memo sent to immigration enforcement employees, ICE acting director Todd Lyons said such immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings.”
Per Daniel’s ruling, the court has repeatedly found that this policy has violated the due process of people detained by federal immigration agents. Raoul didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.