Federal judge requires bail hearing for DACA immigration detainee

From [HERE] US Magistrate Judge James Donohue [official website] on Friday ruled that Daniel Ramirez Medina [IBT backgrounder], a Mexican immigrant-detainee, must be granted a bail hearing during the pendency of his immigration case [JURIST report]. Ramirez Medina was granted permission to stay and work in the U.S. by the Obama Administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but is now being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE alleges that Ramirez Medina has gang ties and should therefore be deported in accordance with President Donald Trump's mandate to deport DACA beneficiaries with criminal ties. According to his lawyers, Ramirez Medina is the first DACA beneficiary the Trump administration has sought to deport.

DACA has been a contentious issue in recent weeks. In January DACA-protected Mitzie Perez and the California League of United Latin American Citizens filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Wells Fargo alleging that the bank refused to extend Perez and other similarly situated students loans solely because of their immigration status. A Georgia state court refused last month to back down from its earlier ruling granting in-state tuition to Georgia university students protected by DACA. Also in January the US House of Representatives passed a funding bill [JURIST report] that included amendments designed to repeal key elements of DACA. A collection of mayors from major US cities, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, warned [JURIST report] then president-elect Donald Trump in December about potential negative economic consequences of repealing DACA.