Editor’s note: Central Current used Rafael’s middle name for this story because he is still under threat of deportation. If you’d like to read more about habeas corpus petitions, follow this link. As Rafael walked into his Immigrations and Customs Enforcement appointment in Mattydale at 9:00 a.m. on April 9, he left his phone in the car.   He carried only two sheets of paper — information about his immigration status, his recent release from immigration detention in the Broome County jail and his recurring ICE appointments, which are scheduled since his release.  He left his passport at home. Rafael was afraid it would be confiscated, making it easier for ICE to detain him again in the future. His family was home, too. Despite their card carrying refugee status, they were all afraid to get close to the Mattydale office.  In the car ride to the appointment, Rafael said he expected the appointment to last more than 20 minutes but fewer than 40.  At 9:39 a.m., just shy of Rafael’s 40-minute cut off, his mother texted a Central Current reporter.  “Good morning,” she wrote in Spanish, “and [Rafael] has not come out yet?” Rafael faces these appointments despite being released from ICE detention in March, the threat of deportation hanging over him each time. His mother and sister wrote the habeas corpus petition that got him released from detention. They taught themselves with social media to do what usually requires a federal lawyer.  Habeas corpus petitions have become one of the only ways for migrants to be released from ICE detention. Habeas corpus petitions have increased significantly across the country and in Upstate New York since September 2025, when the Board of Immigration Appeals determined that all immigrants without a legal status are subject to mandatory detention.  Despite his release, federal attorneys want to send Rafael, from Venezuela, to Ecuador to finish his asylum case.   “If God wants them to deport me, then I am going to leave,” he said. “If God wants me to stay here, I will stay.” Rafael’s sister, Miranda, left, as well as their mom learned how to file petition for habeas corpus through TikTok in order to free Rafael. Rafael had been previously detained for four months after President Donald Trump nullified his humanitarian parole, as well nearly 1 million other immigrants’ temporary legal statuses, obtained through the CBP One app. Credit: Liam Kennedy | Central Current Rafael left Venezuela almost a decade ago, when he was 18 years old. Before leaving, he was a high school senior with aspirations to be a war correspondent or a sports journalist. But as Venezuela’s food shortages and political problems worsened, he started protesting the Maduro regime with people from his neighborhood.  “The people have stones and the government has guns,” said Rafael. “We weren’t part of any political parties, it was just us organizing protests.” Soon, the group caught the eye of the state police, his mother said, and Rafael and his brother fled. Initially they went to Chile. But he lost his status there as Chilean opinions of Venezuelan migrants hardened.  By then, much of his family — including his mother, Ninoska Olivares, and his sister, Miranda Olivares — had gone through the refugee application process in Bogotá, Colombia, and resettled in Syracuse. Rafael decided to join them.   He traveled through South and Central America, taking four days to cross the Darién Gap, which he said was “hell.”  “The smell of a decomposing body is not the same as that of a dog. I never saw dead bodies, but the smell of death was present,” he said.  When he got to Mexico, he decided to wait there for a chance to enter the U.S. using the CBP One app, which was the primary way migrants without documents could enter the U.S. to seek asylum during the latter half of the Biden administration. The app allowed asylum seekers to set up appointments at border crossings.  Rafael stayed in Mexico City for months, renting a two bedroom house with ten other people he had met on the journey north. He sold seltzer waters near bus stations while he waited. When a notification came from the app that he had received an appointment with Customs and Border Protection, Rafael made his way to the Brownsville, Texas crossing. His appointment was at 6 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2023. He arrived at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3. CBP determined Rafael could make a claim that he had credible fear of returning to Venezuela, and scheduled an appointment for an asylum interview in 2027.  He entered the U.S. on immigration parole and with work authorization.  Both Rafael and his family members came to the U.S. through pathways that were legal at the time, telling the U.S. government they were afraid to return to Venezuela. But Ninoska and Miranda are refugees: They applied for their status in Colombia. Rafael is an asylum seeker. He was on U.S. soil when he officially started seeking status. That makes his situation much more tenuous.  Over the past year, ICE has begun treating asylum seekers as “arriving aliens,” making them eligible for detention and deportation. Even people who have lived in the U.S. for years should be treated as though they are standing on the border seeking entry, federal prosecutors argue.  In April 2025, President Donald Trump revoked paroles for all migrants who had entered the country through CBP One. Rafael lost his parole, but it is not clear that anybody made an effort to convey that to him, a judge later ruled.  Then, in October, he got into a car accident in Oneida County, pleading guilty to driving while ability impaired, a more mild form of a DWI — a traffic infraction rather than a criminal charge. The police took his fingerprints and wrote down his address. He was given a court date a few weeks out and sent home. He was nervous. He knew that ICE was detaining more and more immigrants, and he thought it was possible they’d pick him up from court.  He never made it to the court hearing.  Instead, the Alien Criminal Response Management System tipped off ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations that Rafael’s fingerprints matched his immigration profile. The Alien Criminal Response Management System labeled Rafael as in the country illegally and a criminal. A judge later argued that because Rafael pled guilty to a traffic infraction, his actions did not count as a crime under U.S. law.  Three days after the accident, ICE camped out in front of Rafael’s house in the early hours of the morning, according to court documents. ICE officers watched people walking in and out. Finally, they approached Rafael and another man, arresting Rafael.  Rafael believed he wasn’t supposed to be detained while he had a pending asylum case. But he had read that resisting would make it more complicated, so he let them take him.  They took Rafael to the Syracuse ICE office to biometrically confirm his identity. Then, they drove him to Broome County.  “I waited in Mexico all that time because I never wanted them to detain me. I always did everything the right way to avoid this,” said Rafael. “I woke up one day at home and went to sleep in prison.” As far as his family knew at the time, most immigrants who were detained were either deported or they lost their asylum cases, said Rafael’s sister Miranda. The family didn’t understand why Rafael had been detained.Miranda and Ninoska, their mother, called lawyers. Some were scammers, some didn’t respond and all of them were too expensive, said Miranda.  In November, Miranda saw a TikTok about habeas corpus petitions and told her mom about it. But at first they didn’t pay attention.  The Broome County jail was clean, said Rafael, but it was still difficult.  “In comparison to how prisons look in other countries across the border, this was like being in a five-star hotel,” said Rafael. “Psychologically, though, I was still hurting knowing that I am innocent and I am in jail.” During his time there, there were three suspected tuberculosis cases, he said, and the detainees were all quarantined and then tested for the disease in December, January, and February. The bologna appeared rotten — red or green in color, he said. Only one of the corrections officers spoke Spanish. To pass the time, Rafael would play chess, talk to Miranda and watch sports on the television. He read the Press and Sun Bulletin, Binghamton’s local paper. He liked sleeping because it made it feel like he was spending less time in jail, he said.  While detained, Rafael missed Christmas, New Year’s and the detention of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Rafael, who fled Venezuela after protesting Maduro in his youth, laughed at Maduro’s detention.  “Welcome to jail, motherfucker,” the detainees joked to each other.  Meanwhile, Miranda and Ninoska learned what they could about habeas corpus through social media. They had connected to other mothers of detainees. Through a mixture of TikTok, Instagram reels and a Miami notary public they had met through their network, they figured out how to file a habeas corpus petition.  They mailed the petition in early February, four months after Rafael had been detained in front of his house. The petition included dozens of pages of documents sent to ICE, the judge, the federal prosecutor’s office and the Broome County jail. Inside was the notice of petition, entry paperwork, his tax filings, proof of Ninoska’s refugee status and twelve letters from friends and family in support of Rafael.   Rafael’s sister, Miranda, left, as well as their mom learned how to file petition for habeas corpus through TikTok in order to free Rafael. Rafael had been previously detained for four months after President Donald Trump nullified his humanitarian parole, as well nearly 1 million other immigrants’ temporary legal statuses, obtained through the CBP One app. Credit: Liam Kennedy | Central Current His family learned that how and to whom documents are filed matters. Alongside the habeas corpus petition, they filed a temporary restraining order requiring ICE to keep Rafael in Broome County.  They sent the notice of petition to the judge first. She acted quickly to keep him in the Northern District of New York — a 32-county region in New York that includes counties as far north as Clinton and as far south as Ulster.  They were afraid that ICE would see the petition and move Rafael to Texas or Louisiana. Ninoska’s cousin-in-law lost a habeas corpus case that way. Her relatives filed all their paperwork at the same time, ICE moved the in-law from Tennessee to Texas, the judge lost jurisdiction and her relative was deported.  When Ninoska told Rafael she had filed a petition, he was shocked, he said. From what he could see, it cost thousands to get out of detention. The price of a bond could be $10,000, and lawyers were expensive. He knew his family didn’t have the money. Even if they did, he said, he wouldn’t want them to pay.  “With $10,000 in my country,” he said, “I would live like a king.” Ninoska told him to have faith.  “He would tell me and Miranda that the price of liberty was $12,000, $10,000,” said Ninoska.  The habeas trial happened on a computer screen a month after Ninoska filed the paperwork. Ninoska explained that Rafael did not pose a flight risk, that he had no criminal record and that he had waited in Mexico in order to enter legally. She asked for release without bond, as she couldn’t afford to pay. The judge asked questions to ICE, and then ordered Rafael’s immediate release without bond. A Spanish interpreter translated the judge’s decision.  Rafael napped during the hearing. When he woke up, his mom called to tell him they’d won. Soon after, he was leaving Broome. A video of his release shows the family laughing as they run to hug him.  As in many habeas cases, the crux of the judge’s decision hinged on whether an immigrant who had been living in the U.S. had a Fifth Amendment right to due process. A federal prosecutor argued Rafael doesn’t have Fifth Amendment amendment rights.  In her decision, the judge argued that noncitizens living within the U.S. had a right to due process — no matter their immigration status. Rafael’s fifth amendment rights had been violated, U.S. District Judge Anne M. Nardacci ruled.  Rafael returned home, but the federal government’s pursuit of him has not finished. Federal prosecutors have argued Rafael should be deported to Ecuador to finish his asylum process.  If that happens, Ninoska will try to appeal. The appeal process can take years, and she is hoping it will last long enough for the immigration system to change.  Visits to ICE already made Rafael tense, but the pressure from the federal prosecutor made the April 9 visit even more nerve wracking. The judge who ordered his release didn’t order these appointments, he said. He wasn’t certain if she knew about them. But he knew he needed to come.  Shortly after 9:40 a.m. on that April 9 morning at Mattydale, Rafael walked out of the building. The office had been crowded, he explained, full of other families, and that was why he had been there for over 40 minutes.  When his mother heard he had come out, she was relieved.  “Thank God,” she wrote in Spanish.  The post A Syracuse man’s family got him out of ICE detention. He still lives in fear of deportation. appeared first on Central Current. ...read more read less