A Virginia immigration judge has ordered the release of a third young immigrant from federal detention, one day after granting freedom to two brothers at the center of a class-action complaint lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) applicants.
The ACLU of Virginia, which is representing all three youths, said the rulings affirm that ICE unlawfully denied them access to bond hearings. All three teens arrived in the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, were deemed unable to safely return to their home countries because of abuse or neglect, and have pending or approved SIJS applications. They had been detained since August.
“These young brothers came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and cannot safely return after being abused, abandoned, or neglected,” said Eden Heilman, legal director for ACLU Virginia. “Federal law gives them the right to be here. ICE should never have detained them.”
ICE has not responded to requests for comment.
Legal Pathway Overlooked
SIJS, created by Congress nearly 40 years ago, provides legal protections and a path to residency for children who cannot safely return to their home countries. Youth seeking SIJS are not typically subject to mandatory detention.
However, the ACLU lawsuit argues ICE is treating these youths as “arriving noncitizens” who must be held without bond—contradicting federal law, anti-trafficking protections, and constitutional due process. The federal judge overseeing the case ordered ICE to give bond hearings to the plaintiffs and prohibited automatic stays when bond is approved.
Part of a National Pattern
The Virginia cases come amid a nationwide wave of legal challenges to ICE’s expanded practice of detaining immigrants— including SIJS-eligible youth—without access to bond hearings. Recent court decisions in Massachusetts also ordered the release of SIJS youths held in adult facilities.
A July 2025 ICE memo asserted that undocumented immigrants who entered without inspection could be detained throughout their removal proceedings—often for months or years—without bond hearings.
Advocates say these policies violate longstanding protections for vulnerable minors.
Community Pushback and What’s at Stake
Throughout the summer, Virginia activists protested ICE’s operations after reports of “masked, unmarked” detentions and courthouse arrests across the state. Critics described the actions as “abduction-style” and said many arrested individuals had no criminal record.
For the three young immigrants now ordered released, the rulings mean the chance to continue their SIJS applications outside detention. But the broader class-action case is still in its early stages, and thousands of SIJS-eligible youth across the country remain in detention systems that advocates say misapply federal law.
Experts warn that prolonged detention can worsen trauma for young people who have already survived abuse and instability.
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