Court Cases

The ACLU of Pennsylvania joined lawyers from the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) to file a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Dylan Lopez Contreras, a New York City high school student and asylum seeker who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Lopez Contreras, who is from Venezuela, entered the United States legally in 2024 after receiving humanitarian parole. Despite having no criminal record and a pending application for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, which would have put him on a pathway to a green card, Mr. Lopez Contreras was detained at a courthouse by ICE during a routine immigration hearing on May 21, 2025, after ICE moved to dismiss his asylum case. Mr. Lopez Contreras does not speak English and had no attorney at this hearing. As a result, he did not understand that dismissing his case would allow ICE to place him into expedited removal, a summary deportation process with little judicial review or oversight. Mr. Lopez Contreras also suffers from a severe medical condition that doctors were attempting to diagnose before ICE detained him; in detention, he had no access to the specialized care he needs. The ACLU-PA habeas petition challenged Mr. Lopez Contreras' unlawful detention and sought to prevent him from being moved by ICE to another jurisdiction and to ensure he was given full due process as guaranteed by the 5th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. On March 18, 2026, Dylan was released from ICE detention in Pennsylvania after being held for 10 months in captivity.

On May 20, 2020, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic at Villanova University filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seeking documents under the federal Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA).