The Legal Aid Society brought a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Carlos Velasco Lopez, a former DACA recipient, to secure his release from prolonged immigration detention and to challenge an unconstitutional policy which placed on all immigrants in bond hearings the burden of proof of showing, to the satisfaction of an immigration judge, that they were neither a flight risk nor dangerous. This policy allowed the Department of Homeland Security to incarcerate noncitizens for months on end without ever having to demonstrate why incarceration was necessary, violating basic constitutional principles.

In May 2019, a federal trial judge held that the policy violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and ordered Mr. Velasco Lopez a new bond hearing where he was released. In October 2020, the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed the decision, writing: “We conclude that Velasco Lopez was denied due process because he was incarcerated for fifteen months (with no end in sight) while the Government at no point justified his incarceration.”