ICE detained a longtime Beaverton, Oregon resident under a misapplied mandatory-detention law after a random license-plate dragnet flagged him

On November 8, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Beaverton, Oregon ran the license plate of a vehicle as part of a program the agency described in court filings as randomly checking vehicle plates and the names and birthdates of registered owners against DHS databases to identify people unlawfully present, without targeting any particular vehicle or driver [1]. The check identified the driver, J.Y.L.C., a 24-year-old Guatemalan man who has lived in Oregon since 2017 and filed for asylum in 2019, with a hearing scheduled for the following month [1]. Officers pulled him over, cited an address discrepancy in his vehicle registration as grounds that he was a "flight risk," and generated an arrest warrant on the spot; he was detained under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 235(b)(2)(A), a provision requiring mandatory detention for immigrants newly arriving at the border pending removal [1].

U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio ruled that Section 235(b)(2)(A) does not apply to someone who has lived in the country for eight years, found the detention unlawful, and ordered ICE to give J.Y.L.C. a bond hearing within days or release him [1]. The bond hearing was held and bail was set, but because it concluded after ICE's Tacoma facility had closed for the day, J.Y.L.C.'s family could not post bond until the facility reopened the following business day [1]. His attorney, Nicholas Costa, said he had nine minutes to file an emergency habeas petition and restraining-order request before ICE transferred J.Y.L.C. out of Oregon — a window that, had he missed it, would have left the court without jurisdiction to intervene [1].