ACLU Hawai‘i Files Lawsuit to Free Hawai‘i Island Resident from Unlawful Immigration Detention

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 14, 2025

HONOLULU, HI – On January 13, 2026, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi (“ACLU of Hawai‘i”) filed a habeas immigration petition in federal court, seeking the release of Juan Jose Estrada Lopez, a Hawai‘i island resident and husband. At his green card interview in August 2025, he was ripped away from his family and community and locked up at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center. He has been detained there ever since—even though he has committed no crime.

Mr. Estrada Lopez came to the U.S. from Nicaragua in 2022 and moved to Hawai‘i shortly after to work on a coffee farm—where he met and married his wife, who is a U.S. citizen. He is a hard worker, a family man, and has zero criminal history.

But last year, the federal government suddenly decided that Mr. Estrada Lopez should be detained, solely because when he first entered the United States years ago, he lacked proper documentation. In July 2025, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice announced a new policy declaring that any noncitizen who entered the United States without inspection is categorically subject to mandatory detention and ineligible to seek release on bond. This policy upends decades of prior practice that had been consistent with due process.

Since last year, thousands of people have been jailed indefinitely with no opportunity for a bond hearing while their immigration cases proceed for months or years. While over 300 judges in hundreds of cases across the country have declared the government’s new detention policy to be contrary to immigration law and the Constitution, the vast majority of people have not been able to get bond hearings—including Mr. Estrada Lopez.

It has now been five months since Mr. Estrada Lopez has been unlawfully held at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.

Mr. Estrada Lopez’s wife, Emily Estrada, said:

Juan’s unexpected detention at our green card interview has turned our lives completely upside down. What we thought was just a routine step in our immigration process has become the most difficult five months of our lives. Juan defines himself by his ability to provide, and losing that has been devastating. He’s suffering mentally, emotionally, and physically, like any human being would.

In December 2025, a California federal court ruled in a class action that the Trump administration’s policy that seeks to end bond eligibility for thousands of immigrants is unlawful and again declared that all members of the nationwide class are eligible for bond hearings. Despite that court’s order, the federal government has refused to release people in the class—forcing individuals like Mr. Estrada Lopez to seek relief via habeas petitions.

The habeas petition filed by the ACLU of Hawai‘i alleges that Mr. Estrada Lopez’s detention is unlawful because he is a member of the certified class, and because the no-bond policy is unlawful. Habeas corpus ensures that no person — citizen or not — can be held by the government without the right to challenge their detention before a judge. A habeas petition is a legal action that asks the court to release a person from unlawful detention.

In this lawsuit, Mr. Estrada Lopez seeks his immediate release from detention so that he can return home to his wife and community while continuing to pursue lawful immigration status in the United States.

ACLU-HI Immigrants’ Rights Attorney Leilani Stacy said:

The executive branch is locking people up in violation of Congress’s laws and federal court orders. This has to stop. Filing this petition is our signal to the federal government, and local state actors, that the ACLU of Hawai‘i will ensure that the due process rights of all of our community members are protected—regardless of immigration status.

The ACLU of Hawaiʻi has recently devoted additional resources to advance immigrants’ rights in Hawaiʻi, including by hiring its first-ever Immigrants’ Rights Attorney. This habeas petition is also the first lawsuit filed as part of this new initiative.

ACLU-HI Legal Director Wookie Kim said:

We are making a deliberate commitment to strengthen our work defending immigrants and their families, and this case is the first step in that effort. No one in our islands should fear that engaging with the legal immigration process will result in indefinite detention without a hearing. We are in this fight for the long haul.