Marisa Ong, Senior Counsel at Singleton Schreiber in New Mexico, was featured by the Albuquerque Journal in a long-form investigative report examining the sharp rise in federal habeas corpus challenges tied to immigration detention in the state, as lawmakers prepare to reconsider the Immigrant Safety Act, legislation aimed at ending New Mexico’s collaboration with federal immigration detention.
The article highlighted Ms. Ong’s role representing a young Indigenous Guatemalan man detained at the Cibola County Correctional Center following a collateral arrest, despite holding Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a designation that generally protects against removal. A magistrate judge ultimately ordered the man’s release, underscoring concerns raised in the reporting about arbitrary detention and the denial of bond hearings for noncitizens with lawful protections.
The report noted that recent federal immigration policies have sharply curtailed access to bond hearings, contributing to a surge in habeas corpus petitions challenging prolonged civil detention. It also highlighted how New Mexico’s rural detention facilities increasingly hold individuals transferred from across the country, placing the state at the center of legal challenges focused on due process and the lawfulness of continued detention.
