Judge Rules ICE Illegally Arrested Former DACA Recipient

Newsweek · Billal Rahman · 2026-11-06 13:21 UTC

A judge ordered a former DACA recipient be released after finding ICE improperly arrested and unlawfully detained him.

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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