Venezuelan Asylum Seeker Petitions for Release from ICE Detention After May 19 Arrest

Attorneys for Venezuelan asylum seeker Yerlys Moreno López filed a petition for habeas corpus in federal court seeking her immediate release from the North Lake detention center. The filing argues that she was unlawfully detained and will not receive adequate medical care at the facility.

Moreno López, who entered the United States through legal channels in 2024, had just left her home on Detroit’s eastside on May 19 when ICE agents attempted to pull her over.

According to her sworn statement, she tried to drive away before agents cut her off, causing her SUV to crash into a parked car. Two ICE agents then tackled her to the ground as she exited the vehicle. Medical records submitted by her attorneys show she sustained a fractured kneecap, a laceration on the other knee requiring eight stitches, a large scrape on her right forearm, a blow to the head, and bruises on her neck and face.

She did not lose consciousness, and scans showed no severe brain injury, though she was diagnosed with head trauma. ” A few hours after the incident, Moreno López repeatedly told doctors at Detroit Receiving Hospital that her injuries occurred after she got out of her vehicle.

She underwent emergency surgery, after which doctors prescribed orthopedic rehabilitation and expected her to be discharged to an ICE facility in Cincinnati.

Instead, she was taken to the North Lake detention center. North Lake medical records filed by the government show that the facility’s initial care program for Moreno López involved walking down a hallway three times a day using a walker. Her attorneys argue that the facility’s “subpar medical care” would cause her irreparable harm.