Northridge father detained by ICE despite winning years-long immigration case
Father detained by ICE during scheduled check-in
Miguel Raudes has been in ICE custody in Adelanto for four weeks and counting despite winning his immigration case three years ago.
LOS ANGELES - A Southern California family is facing devastating uncertainty after a father who won his long-running immigration case was suddenly detained during a routine check-in.
What we know:
Miguel Raudes, a 46-year-old husband, father, and business owner from Northridge, has been held at the ICE detention facility in Adelanto for more than four weeks.
Raudes, who runs a local contracting business with his wife, originally fought a removal order to Nicaragua for seven years.
In 2023, an immigration judge agreed that Raudes faced a real threat of political persecution and granted a withholding of removal, legally barring the government from sending him back to Nicaragua.
Despite this, he was detained on May 29 during a routine check-in.
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His attorney states his only criminal history is a single DUI from more than ten years ago.
A judge has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt any immediate removal.
What we don't know:
It's unclear which third country the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is targeting for Raudes’s removal.
DHS and ICE have not yet issued an official statement or rationale for his continued detention.
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It's unknown if a judge will grant a final, permanent restraining order.
What they're saying:
Raudes’s wife expressed deep anguish over the sudden reversal of fortune for her family.
"It's heart-wrenching to see my country do this to us. It's tearing families apart for no reason. Miguel is not undocumented here. We already went through the whole process. We won his case, and they still detained him."
Legal experts and his defense team have raised alarms over the federal strategy.
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His attorney noted that third-country removals are typically reserved for severe criminal cases. Commenting on the systemic danger of the practice, an immigration expert stated, "One of the big concerns with the third country removals is not just that the person could potentially be harmed in the third county that they might be removed to, but that that third country would just turn around and remove them to their country of origin where the judge has found that it's more likely than not that they will suffer persecution or torture."
Additionally, his attorney believes the detention itself is illegal because ICE has "already exceeded some time limits on detention set out by the Supreme Court."
What's next:
The temporary restraining order currently protects Raudes from being transferred out of the United States, but it only remains in place until a federal judge can make a final ruling on a permanent restraining order.
Raudes’s legal team is moving forward with additional legal avenues to challenge the validity of his confinement, pointing out that in several recent, identical cases, judges have consistently sided against the government.
The Source: This report is based on interviews with Miguel Raudes's wife and legal counsel detaoiling his court history, alongside formal inquiries submitted to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.