Federal Court halts the transfer of a second detained Dominican immigrant and orders a bond hearing in Puerto Rico

San Juan, P.R. – The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico today granted a habeas corpus petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Puerto Rico and ordered the federal government not to transfer Diogene Fermin Fernández, a Dominican immigrant detained by federal agents on Tuesday, outside Puerto Rico.

In his order, Judge Pedro A. Delgado Hernández also set a deadline no later than January 30, 2026, for the government to provide a bond hearing, warning that “if respondents do not provide such a hearing within this period, they shall immediately release the petitioner.”

“Today, once again, the court makes clear that the government cannot use accelerated transfer as a strategy to avoid judicial review and dismantle legal defenses in Puerto Rico,” said Fermín Arraiza Navas, legal director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico and counsel in the case. “This order protects the petitioner’s right to a bond hearing and reaffirms that civil immigration detention cannot operate outside the bounds of the Constitution.”

Diogene Fermín Fernández has lived in Puerto Rico since 2007 and was stopped by federal agents on January 20, 2026, while on his way to work in Villa Palmeras, an area in San Juan with a high concentration of the Dominican community.

According to the petition filed before the court, the arrest occurred under circumstances that raise serious concerns of racial profiling, and ended with his transfer to western Puerto Rico, where he remained in federal custody facing the threat of being removed from the jurisdiction within hours or days.

“May this ruling also serve as an example and a warning to federal agents and officials who insist on arbitrarily locking up immigrants instead of guaranteeing them a fair assessment and real access to their rights, such as a bond hearing in the jurisdiction where they are detained,” said immigration attorney Julie Cruz Santana, who is a petitioner in the case on behalf of Fermín Fernández.

The judicial ruling marks the second time this week that the Federal Court in Puerto Rico has intervened in favor of immigrants represented by the ACLU of Puerto Rico, with the collaboration of the Community Legal Clinic of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law and the Immigration Clinic of the University of Puerto Rico School of Law.

The organization recalled that yesterday, Thursday, it also succeeded in stopping the transfer of Martín Medina de la Cruz out of Puerto Rico through a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention as arbitrary and lacking legal basis.

The habeas corpus petition argued that Fermín Fernández is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, and that his detention lacks a valid legal basis. The ACLU of Puerto Rico also noted that it continues to litigate the case of a Haitian immigrant detained in Puerto Rico who was transferred to Florida even though the organization filed a habeas corpus petition before the transfer occurred. The ACLU maintains that this transfer should not be used to evade the court’s jurisdiction or to prevent judicial review of a detention that occurred in Puerto Rico.

The organization insisted that it will continue using litigation to demand that the federal government respect due process, guarantee access to bond in appropriate cases, and stop racial profiling and punitive transfer practices that disproportionately affect immigrant communities in Puerto Rico.