By John Burnett, Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Published: Feb. 18, 2026
A 42-year-old Captain Cook man who was locked up more than five months by the federal government without charges or bond was freed late last month, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii said Tuesday.
Juan Jose Estrada Lopez, who works on a Kona coffee farm, is back home with his wife of almost two years according to Leilani Stacy, an ACLU-HI immigration rights attorney.
“On January 27, Mr. Estrada Lopez had an immigration court hearing on … basically, whether or not his green card would be granted, or if he was entitled to any other forms of relief,” Stacy told the Tribune-Herald. “It was successful, so he was granted his green card and granted lawful permanent resident status.
“And at that time, the government … waived appeal, meaning they were not going to contest whether or not the green card was valid. … That means there was no basis at that point to keep Mr. Estrada Lopez in custody, and he was released … within the course of a few hours.”
Stacy said that once Estrada Lopez was granted the green card and released, the ACLU-HI contacted the U.S. District Court in Honolulu to have its petition for a writ of habeas corpus — a legal action that asks the court to release a person from unlawful detention — dismissed, which it was.
Estrada Lopez came to the U.S. from Nicaragua in 2022 without documentation and moved to Hawaii shortly afterward to work at an unnamed coffee farm — where he met and married his wife, who is a U.S. citizen.
Estrada Lopez, who has no criminal history — immigration violations are civil law, Stacy said — was taken into federal custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during an application interview for a green card in August.
Stacy on Jan. 14 told the Tribune-Herald that Estrada Lopez was “ripped away” from his wife while she was being interviewed. He was taken to the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu, where he remained incarcerated without charges or bond until his release on Jan. 27.
Lopez’s wife, Emily Estrada, said in a statement last month that her husband’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,” she said. “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.”
Stacy said that after the immigration court ordered him released, Estrada Lopez
appeared “relieved.”
“It was really great just to see him in person and not at the Federal Detention Center, wearing his normal clothes again, and I think he was just really eager to be reunited with his wife,” she said. “From my perspective, he is a really humble, quiet and lovely guy.
“And, frankly, I can tell you he was a bit overwhelmed. If you’ve ever been to FDC, you know he hadn’t seen grass, hadn’t been outside for months.
“I think there was a lot of joy for him and his wife to get him on a plane back home to the Big Island.”