Federal court orders ICE to return to Puerto Rico an immigrant detained and transferred to the United States after the ACLU filed a Habeas Corpus petition

San Juan, P.R. – The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico ordered the federal government to bring Teófilo Ávila back to Puerto Rico, an immigrant who was detained and transferred out of the jurisdiction even though the ACLU of Puerto Rico had timely filed a habeas corpus petition to prevent his transfer.

Judge Silvia Carreño Coll ordered that Ávila be returned to Puerto Rico no later than February 2 and warned that noncompliance would result in contempt sanctions against Rebecca González Ramos, special agent in charge of HSI in Puerto Rico, identified by the court as the detainee’s designated custodian.

“This order confirms something basic that apparently is not clear to federal immigration agents in Puerto Rico: judicial proceedings must be respected, especially when the freedom and dignity of human beings are at stake,” said attorney Fermín Arraiza Navas, legal director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico.

According to the order, on January 29, 2026, the court had granted an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) and an urgent motion prohibiting Ávila’s transfer outside Puerto Rico and requiring that he be granted a bond hearing before an immigration judge no later than February 12, 2026.

Despite this, the court was later informed that Ávila had been transferred to Miami, Florida, where he was detained at the Broward Transitional Center, in an arbitrary process because the government had been served with a copy of the habeas corpus petition before the transfer. In its ruling, the court made clear that compliance with the injunction is “mandatory, not discretionary.” Ávila was brought back to Puerto Rico on February 1.

ACLU of Puerto Rico maintains five active immigrant rights cases

Locally, since January the ACLU of Puerto Rico has succeeded in stopping the transfer out of our jurisdiction of four immigrants detained by ICE agents—Martín Medina de la Cruz, Diogene Fermín Fernández, Joan Alberto Zorrilla Lora, and Ávila—and in ensuring compliance with their right to due process and a bond hearing by filing habeas corpus petitions before the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

In two of these cases, federal immigration judges have imposed excessive bonds, a pattern that likewise seeks to violate immigrants’ rights. As recently as today, one of these immigrants was released on bond and is reunited with his family in Puerto Rico. The ACLU of Puerto Rico is also continuing to handle the case of Albeto Pierre, a Haitian immigrant detained on Christmas Eve and transferred to the state of Florida.

“When the government ignores the filing of a habeas corpus petition and tries to evade the authority of the courts, it not only tramples fundamental rights, it also interferes with effective access to justice and with a detained person’s ability to communicate with family and legal counsel,” noted attorney Rafael Rodríguez, director of the Legal Assistance Clinic at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law, who represents these cases together with the ACLU.

These arrests occurred under circumstances that raise serious concerns of racial profiling and reflect grave due process violations, in addition to other possible violations of law that cannot be normalized, the ACLU of Puerto Rico underscored.

“We will continue litigating to ensure that the rights of detained immigrants are respected and that the government is held accountable when it acts outside the law,” said attorney María García, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, also counsel in these cases alongside the ACLU.

Ávila—who is represented by immigration attorney Rosaura González Rucci—was detained in Puerto Rico on January 19, 2026, and was later held in local facilities before being transferred out of the jurisdiction. The court underscored that there is no dispute that the detainee was in Puerto Rico when the habeas corpus petition was properly filed. The judge also denied a government motion seeking dismissal of the case and reiterated that the prior order (TRO) remains in effect.

The order also reaffirms that, although the government transferred the petitioner out of Puerto Rico, the court retains jurisdiction over the habeas corpus petition filed when Ávila was detained in Puerto Rico and when the petition identified his immediate custodian. In that context, the judge cited federal case law recognizing that a later transfer by the government does not eliminate the court’s authority to hear the habeas petition or to order the detained person’s return to the forum where he was located at the time the petition was filed.