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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A federal judge in Minnesota ordered the Trump administration to release a former Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, finding he was improperly arrested without a warrant in a North Dakota traffic stop and unlawfully detained.
U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim on November 2 ordered the release of Ivan De Haro Villagrana, a Mexican citizen who came to the United States in 2002 when he was 5 years old. Villagrana obtained deferred action under the DACA program in 2016. His DACA was not renewed around 2021 following a conviction for driving under the influence, according to the court order.
DACA was created under the Obama administration in 2012 to protect certain immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allow them to work legally. The program does not provide lawful immigration status or a pathway to citizenship.
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The ruling comes amid the government's nationwide immigration crackdown and a historic rise in legal challenges to detention. More than 93,000 immigration-related habeas cases have been filed since January 2025, according to a ProPublica tracker, with cases recently surging in Minnesota.
Newsweek has contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security and the man's legal team for comment via email and is awaiting responses.
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Federal judges have emerged as a key check against the Trump administration’s deportation machine. They have ordered the release of immigration detainees and called out immigration officials for disregarding due process rights and, in some cases, flouting court orders.
McKenzie County Sheriff's Deputy Brady Gustafson stopped Villagrana in Watford City, North Dakota, on September 22 for driving without headlights, according to court filings.
Villagrana was unable to provide identification, according to the ruling. Gustafson contacted ICE Officer Johnston, who interviewed the man by telephone to establish his identity and check his immigration status.
After checking government records, Johnston determined Villagrana did not have immigration documentation allowing him to remain in the United States. Authorities also identified an address for him in Mitchell, Nebraska.
Johnston determined that a warrantless arrest was justified because of what he described as "geographic challenges" and the distance between the nearest ICE office and Villagrana's residence, according to the order.
Johnston instructed Gustafson to arrest Villagrana for immigration violations, and the deputy took him to the McKenzie County Correctional Facility in Watford City.
At the time of his arrest, Villagrana had never previously been in immigration custody or placed in removal proceedings, according to his habeas petition.
Villagrana was transferred to ICE custody on September 23, per the filings. He was issued an I-200 administrative warrant and a Notice to Appear, both dated that day. ICE transported him to the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, Minnesota, where he remained detained at the time of the ruling.
The federal government argued that Villagrana's detention was lawful and mandatory under federal immigration law and that officials had complied with the law governing warrantless immigration arrests.
Under federal law, immigration officers may arrest a noncitizen without a warrant if they have reason to believe the person is violating immigration law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. The Eighth Circuit has interpreted "reason to believe" as requiring probable cause.
Tunheim found ICE had reason to believe Villagrana was in the U.S. without legal status after he confirmed it during the phone interview. But the judge said his failure to provide identification alone was not enough. The key question was whether ICE had reason to believe he would flee before it could obtain a warrant.
The government argued he might flee because he was in a working vehicle, lived far from the nearest ICE office, and had not regularized his immigration status.
Tunheim rejected those arguments. Villagrana stopped for the deputy, answered questions that allowed authorities to identify him, and stayed during his phone interview with ICE, the judge said.
Authorities also already had Villagrana's home address, and the government did not argue that ICE would have been unable to find him after getting a warrant.
"The warrantless arrest exceptions of § 1357(a) were not enacted for and should not be used to promote the convenience of an arresting officer," Tunheim wrote.
The judge also rejected the argument that Villagrana's immigration status showed he was likely to flee.
"Removability alone is not a reason to believe that a noncitizen is likely to escape," the judge wrote.
Tunheim pointed to Villagrana's previous participation in DACA. He had received several DACA approvals and, according to his petition, had previously given the Department of Homeland Security his fingerprints, photograph, and home address.
"These actions are not consistent with a noncitizen intending to evade detection," Tunheim wrote.
The judge found the government had not shown that Villagrana was likely to flee before authorities could get a warrant or that ICE would have been unable to find him afterward.
Tunheim wrote that authorities had "improperly arrested and detained" Villagrana and that his detention was unlawful.
He ordered Villagrana released within 48 hours of the November 2 order.
Authorities were required to give his lawyers at least 12 hours' notice of his release and return his personal belongings, including any driver's licenses, passports, or immigration documents. The judge also ordered that he be released without conditions such as a location-tracking device.
The parties were ordered to update the court on his release by November 5 and say by November 9 whether any further court proceedings were needed.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and James Debens
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