Sabrina Carmona Sanchez filed a habeas petition on February 2, 2026 challenging her unlawful detention in immigration custody at Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi — a privately-run facility that is currently the largest ICE prison in the country. Ms. Sanchez has also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order requesting her immediate release from ICE detention.

Ms. Carmona Sanchez fled her native Ecuador due to persecution she faced as a trans woman. She migrated to the United States in 2023, and has since then resided with her partner in Queens, New York. Ms. Carmona Sanchez has a pending request for asylum, and is also in the process of applying for humanitarian visas available to victims of crime and human trafficking.

Since January 3, 2026, Ms. Carmona Sanchez has been in immigration detention after she was arrested by local law enforcement in the New York area, who turned her over to ICE. ICE quickly flew Ms. Carmona Sanchez to Louisiana and then to Mississippi, despite her doctor’s orders that air travel would interfere with her recovery from a recent surgery. ICE did not at first provide Ms. Carmona Sanchez with hormone therapy — necessary prescription medicine she has been taking continually for over two decades. After ICE discovered she was trans, they moved Ms. Carmona Sanchez to a men-only ICE prison, housing her in a dorm with approximately 100 men. Ms. Carmona Sanchez fears for her ongoing safety and has already experienced verbal harassment.

Despite being eligible to seek release from detention while her immigration case is pending, ICE has refused to release Ms. Carmona Sanchez, and she has not been provided a bond hearing. The Trump administration has taken the untenable legal position that people like Ms. Carmona Sanchez, who were arrested by ICE in the interior after crossing the border without inspection months or years ago, are subject to mandatory detention under immigration law and are not eligible for a bond hearing. This policy has been challenged successfully in several class actions and hundreds of individual habeas petitions across the country.

Ms. Carmona Sanchez’s habeas petition challenges her ongoing detention in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act and her constitutional due process rights, and her motion for a temporary restraining order seeks her immediate release from detention in light of the strength of her legal claims and the daily risk to her safety and well-being she faces as a trans woman in ICE detention.