A federal judge earlier this month ordered a hearing to determine if a detainee in Aurora who has spent the last two years in immigration custody should be released during the remainder of her removal proceedings.

More than two decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a noncitizen’s detention could be constitutionally unreasonable beyond six months. In a March 8 order, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney concluded the government’s prolonged detention of Vicky Rodriguez Juarez, in combination with other factors, rose to the level of a constitutional violation in the absence of a bond hearing.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained Rodriguez Juarez, a citizen of Honduras, since March 2022. Although an immigration judge twice denied her request to avoid deportation, an appellate board found errors in the judge’s decision making both times.

Last month, Rodriguez Juarez filed a petition for habeas corpus, arguing her prolonged detention without a hearing to see if she was eligible for release on bond amounted to a constitutional violation of her right to due process. Sweeney agreed.

It was “undisputed that Ms. Rodriguez Juarez has now been detained for more than 736 days – over four times the presumptive six-month limit,” she wrote. Further, “Ms. Rodriguez Juarez has reported that the conditions of her detention are poor and have exacerbated her physical and mental health complications.”

Judges in Colorado have repeatedly directed immigration authorities to hold release hearings for noncitizens whose detentions exceeded 12 months at the privately operated facility in Aurora. Last year, Sweeney blasted the government for opposing a release hearing for a woman who had been detained for 14 months. By then, several decisions out of Colorado’s federal trial court had put immigration authorities on notice “of how this same legal issue – lengthy detention without individualized bond hearings – has been consistently resolved in this District,” she wrote at the time.

Rodriguez Juarez first entered the United States as a child in 1994 and immigration authorities immediately detained her. While an immigration judge ordered her removal, she escaped from custody and remained in the country for two decades.

During that time, she became a victim of human trafficking and was convicted of multiple state and federal crimes. The government deported her to Honduras in 2019, but Rodriguez Juarez, who is transgender, reentered the U.S. because she feared for her safety in her birth country.

In March 2022, Rodriguez Juarez again entered immigration custody, where an asylum officer concluded she had a credible fear of persecution in Honduras. Rodriguez Juarez then became subject to withholding-only proceedings, which would prevent her deportation to Honduras if she prevailed.

For much of her subsequent detention, Rodriguez Juarez was housed in the male population at a Louisiana facility, where she was allegedly subjected to harassment based on her gender identity. After she filed a civil rights complaint, the government transferred her to Aurora in 2023. Although she was housed with other transgender detainees, Rodriguez Juarez alleged officials still put her in solitary confinement and did not provide proper medical care.

Sweeney, in evaluating whether to order a hearing to consider Rodriguez Juarez’s release during the remainder of her removal proceedings, acknowledged federal immigration law does not specify how long the government may hold noncitizens with criminal convictions. However, the Supreme Court has interpreted the constitutional guarantee of due process to generally apply after six months.

Sweeney found Rodriguez Juarez may ultimately prevail in her removal proceedings given the potential for persecution in Honduras. Further, her current conditions at Aurora, while seemingly better than Louisiana, did not appear different from “penal confinement.”

“Thus, her continued detention requires an individualized bond hearing before an (immigration judge) in order to comport with due process,” Sweeney wrote.

She gave the government until April 5 to hold a release hearing for Rodriguez Juarez, where it will have to demonstrate she is a flight risk or danger to the community in order to continue her detention.

The case is Rodriguez Juarez v. Choate et al.