Federal judge halts transfer of immigrant detained by ICE during an aggressive vehicle intervention

San Juan, P.R. - A federal judge halted on Wednesday the immediate transfer of an immigrant woman detained in Puerto Rico, notifying of the possible illegality of the detention, as was pointed out by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Puerto Rico in the legal remedy presented to the Federal Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

The emergency petition of habeas corpus was presented on July 13 on behalf of Inocencia Rodríguez, an immigrant Dominican woman, to challenge what the ACLU described as an illegal detention. This is the tenth case presented by the organization regarding the rights of immigrants so far this year.

“Inocencia is an irrefutable example of the unconstitutional abuse and illegal treatment suffered by thousands of immigrants who reside in our archipelago and who are a part of our communities” emphasized attorney Fermín Arraiza Navas, legal director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico.

Rodríguez was detained on Friday, July 10, 2026, during an aggressive multi-vehicle operation carried out by at least eight individuals at a checkpoint in Guaynabo. At the time of the stop, she was driving a vehicle registered under her name with the Department of Transportation and Public Works and no local authority had ordered a detention to this vehicle. This has been the method of illegal and violent interventions utilized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who are responsible for the death of at least three individuals in Texas, Maine, and Florida.

Rodríguez is a beneficiary of the Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130) approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and presented by her husband, Pablo Rafael Mota, a lawful permanent resident. On April 24, 2025, she also obtained approval for Form I-601A as part of the process required to regularize her migratory status through consular processing.

“If true, this would render the Petitioner’s detention illegal. Consequently, the Court finds the issuance of a temporary restraining order justified. If the alleged facts contained in this petition are true, and a precautionary measure is not obtained, the Petitioner could suffer irreparable damage in the case that effective communication with her attorney and the opportunity to challenge her detention are denied”, noted Judge María Antongiorgi Jordán in her order.

In the petition, the ACLU of Puerto Rico argued that Rodríguez, who has an eight-year-old daughter who is a U.S. citizen, poses neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, and therefore requested her immediate release and a bond hearing in accordance with federal law.

In the past few weeks, the team of the ACLU of Puerto Rico has documented actions perpetrated by ICE agents, namely physical aggressions, arbitrary interventions in the presence of minors, unjustified interventions in vehicular traffic routes, and violations of due process, among others. Individuals have also documented these actions and uploaded video recordings to social media.

The ACLU of Puerto Rico, together with the Immigration Clinic of the UPR School of Law and the Legal Assistance Clinic of the Interamerican University School of Law, has represented ten immigrants—incluidng Inocencia Rodríguez—whose basic rights have been violated and who represent a sample of what hundreds of immigrants in our archipelago are experiencing.

In nine out of ten cases, the organization and its collaborators have succeeded at halting the expedited transfer of immigrants or securing a court order requiring ICE to return the individual to the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico. Moreover, the organization has also secured access to bond hearings to which individuals are entitled to. However, not all immigration judges have granted the opportunity to continue immigration proceedings while released on bail in every case. Out of ten total cases, immigration judges have denied bail in two, despite neither of the two individuals representing a flight risk or danger to the community.

For these individuals, bail is only the beginning of a variety of obstacles. In the process, the ACLU of Puerto Rico has identified patterns of excessive bail without justification, procedural hurdles, and the constant threat of family separation. These arrests occurred under circumstances that raise serious concerns of racial profiling and reflect grave violations to due process, among other possible violations to the law that the public should not normalize.

“We will continue to use litigation to demand from the federal government that due process be respected, access to bail be guaranteed in corresponding cases, and that practices of racial profiling and punitive transfers that affect immigrant communities in Puerto Rico are halted,” stated attorney Annette Martinez Orabona, executive director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico.