Mohammed Abushanab has been detained for 17 months even though an immigration judge granted him relief from deportation

December 11, 2025, New York – Mohammed Abushanab, a 27-year-old Palestinian asylum-seeker who fled persecution by the Israeli military in the West Bank only to be incarcerated in Texas by ICE, is challenging his indefinite detention in federal court. He has been detained for 17 months, including nine months since an immigration judge granted him humanitarian relief from deportation on grounds that he would likely face danger or be tortured if he were sent back to Palestine. 

“I want to be free and reunited with my family here in the United States,” said Mr. Abushanab. "I applied for asylum because I feared for my life in the war we endured every day in Palestine. Here, a judge granted me withholding of removal, but I have been locked up for 17 months. Every aspect of life in immigration detention is uncomfortable. I escaped detention and abuse in Palestine only to be treated terribly and detained indefinitely in the U.S. I submitted the habeas petition to secure justice and my freedom, and I hope the judge quickly gives me my freedom.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights and Texas A&M Legal Clinics filed a habeas petition on Mr. Abushanab’s behalf in November, and, in a motion filed today seeking summary judgment in his favor, they reaffirm that his continued detention violates the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. 

In the West Bank, Abushanab lived on his family’s land, just one hundred meters from the Israeli border. The Israeli military routinely harassed him, abducted him, and detained him. During one period of detention, he was interrogated for hours at a time and physically abused. After Israeli soldiers came onto his land and fired bullets near him, he feared for his life and fled. 

In February 2025, an immigration judge granted him both withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Despite the humanitarian relief, ICE has continued to detain him, denying requests for release from his immigration lawyer, who has established that he poses no threat to public safety, is willing to comply with terms of release, and has strong community ties and a stable residence available with a sponsor who is a U.S. Army veteran. 

During months of detention, his mental health has deteriorated. He has been taunted by guards, who have denied him the ability both to perform prayers essential to his Muslim faith and to meet regularly with a cleric. To protest his treatment, he engaged in a hunger strike, which he ended when a guard threatened to send him to solitary confinement if he did not eat. 

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government can hold immigrants for only a “reasonably necessary” time – about six months. Then it must release them, unless it can show that they pose a security threat or that their deportation is imminent. As detailed in today’s motion, the government has done neither. 

“Mr. Abushanab should have been released from immigration detention months ago, but because he is Palestinian the government is punishing him and illegally subjecting him to indefinite detention,” said Samah Sisay, Staff Attorney at Center for Constitutional Rights. “The law requires that Mr. Abushanab have access to due process and is quickly granted his freedom to reunite with his family.” 

For more information, see the case page.