ATLANTA — On November 12, four individuals filed a class action lawsuit challenging the unlawful re-detention of immigrant community members following the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) abrupt and unexplained reversal of longstanding federal immigration policy.
The policy reversal is part of the federal government’s broader campaign to expand immigration detention and accelerate mass deportations. As a result, thousands of noncitizens previously released from immigration custody now face the threat of arbitrary re-arrest and indefinite detention despite complying with release conditions and ICE’s prior determination that they posed no danger or flight risk. Since May 2025, hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been re-detained in the ICE Atlanta Field Office’s area of responsibility alone: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The American Civil Liberties Unions of North Carolina (ACLU-NC), South Carolina (ACLU-SC), and Georgia (ACLU-GA), and Foley Hoag LLP filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of four plaintiffs, all of whom have pending applications for immigration relief:
- Livinton Sosa Martinez, a 41-year-old Nicaraguan man who resides in Greensboro, North Carolina;
- Raquel Mariona Ebora, a 39-year-old Honduran woman who resides in Dunn, North Carolina;
- Alvaro Ibañez-Cardenas, a 35-year-old Venezuelan man who resides in Athens, Georgia; and
- Ambrosio Trujillo Zavaleta, a 46-year-old Mexican man who resides in Savannah, Georgia.
Sosa, Mariona, Ibañez-Cardenas, and Trujillo seek to represent a class harmed by DHS’s “Re-Detention Policy.” Please see a summary of each plaintiff’s experience and their quotes here. They are asking the court to declare the policy unlawful, block its continued use, and restore the longstanding “Changed Circumstances Policy.” Plaintiffs also request that the court temporarily halt the re-detention policy while the case proceeds.
For more than four decades, the ICE Atlanta Field Office followed DHS’s Changed Circumstances Policy, which barred immigration officers from re-detaining individuals previously released from immigration custody absent an individualized determination that their circumstances had materially changed. Under this policy, ICE did not seek to detain noncitizens who were previously released to await the outcome of their immigration proceedings and were complying with conditions of their release, like attending immigration check-ins and court hearings.
But around May 2025, DHS abruptly abandoned that longstanding policy and adopted the Re-Detention Policy, authorizing officers to re-arrest and re-detain individuals without determining whether any material change had occurred.
Plaintiffs filed suit against DHS, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Acting ICE Director David Venturella, and Acting Atlanta Field Office Director Kristen Sullivan, challenging DHS’s policy change under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The APA allows courts to strike down government policies when agencies make changes without a reasoned explanation, fail to consider the impact on people who relied on longstanding policies, or adopt policies that violate the constitution and other laws. Here, the Fourth Amendment protects people from being re-detained on the same immigration charges without an individualized determination that their circumstances have materially changed.
Many people built their lives, maintained employment and paid taxes, pursued educational opportunities, and cared for their families in reliance on DHS’s longstanding Changed Circumstances Policy. Since its reversal, individuals have been re-arrested without warning at routine ICE check-ins, resulting in separated families, disrupted businesses, and people being cut off from essential medical care. ICE detains individuals in facilities far from their homes, which has made it more difficult for detained people to communicate with attorneys, gather evidence, and pursue their immigration claims.
A federal district court has already found DHS’s re-detention policy unlawful and temporarily halted its use in the ICE San Francisco Field Office’s area of responsibility, concluding that the agency radically departed from longstanding practice without providing the legally required justification.
“Our clients have complied with the rules the government placed on them. They have shown up for court hearings, attended immigration check-in appointments, and adhered to the conditions of their release, all while building their lives around the understanding that doing so would allow them to remain free as their immigration cases proceeded,” said Corina Scott, Staff Attorney at the ACLU of North Carolina. “DHS is now systematically stripping people of longstanding protections and arbitrarily re-detaining them in harsh conditions. Our clients are challenging unlawful re-detentions so immigrants have a fair chance to build lives in the communities they call home.”
“Many of our immigrant neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family have built their lives on the promise that if they followed DHS’s conditions, they would not be re-detained. Last year, the rug was pulled out from under them by an administration more concerned with meeting arrest quotas and treating them as numbers, rather than individuals with families, livelihoods, and futures,” said Raneem Ashrawi, Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Georgia. “Mr. Trujillo, Mr. Ibañez, and the thousands of other class members, have unique stories and circumstances that ICE officers have now been instructed to disregard, with no reasoned process or consideration. This lawsuit is an important step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the rights of all Georgians are upheld, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside our partners in the Carolinas to do so.”
“South Carolinians shouldn’t have to live in fear that they or their neighbors, coworkers, or family members will be baselessly torn from their community and thrown back into detention,” said Sarah Schreiber, Staff Attorney at the ACLU of South Carolina. “We are proud to stand with our fellow ACLU affiliates to defend our clients and the rule of law against these egregious and unjustifiable abuses.”
DHS is frequently using arbitrary immigration detention as a tool of intimidation — undermining due process and tearing families apart. This lawsuit seeks to hold the federal government accountable, restore longstanding protections against unlawful re-detention, and prevent immigration officers from taking away people’s freedom without an individualized justification.
The case is Sosa Martinez et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al. Read the full complaint here.
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