F.A.A.* filed a habeas petition on November 5, 2025, challenging his 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. ICE refused to release Mr. A. despite the fact that he won relief from deportation in immigration court.

Mr. A. fled his native Turkey and sought protection in the United States after being persecuted and imprisoned for his affiliation with a transnational social, educational, and religious network that has faced a sustained and targeted crackdown in Turkey over the past decade. He came to the United States to seek asylum and reunite with his wife and their two young sons, who are U.S. lawful permanent residents living in Georgia. 

Mr. A. had been in immigration detention since January 2025, when he arrived at the United States-Mexico border, turned himself over to U.S. immigration officials and requested asylum. In May 2025, an immigration judge granted Mr. A. withholding of removal to Turkey based on the threats to his life or freedom he faces if deported there. The government was thus legally barred from deporting him to Turkey. Despite winning relief from deportation in Immigration Court, ICE continued to detain Mr. A., claiming they would be able to lawfully deport him to a “third country” as part of the Trump administration’s cruel and lawless third-country deportation scheme.

Mr. A.’s habeas petition challenged his prolonged detention in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act and his constitutional due process rights – legal claims that are well-established under the Supreme Court case Zadvydas v. Davis, which set limits on how long ICE can detain someone who has already been ordered deported.  Nonetheless, the district court delayed ruling on his petition for many months. When Mr. A. and his legal team learned in late May 2026 that ICE was planning to deport him to the Central African Republic – a country to which he has no ties and where he feared he would be persecuted, tortured, or killed – the court declined to rule on his request for emergency relief. In June 2026, Mr. A was taken from Adams, shackled, loaded onto a plane, and deported to the Central African Republic with over a dozen other individuals despite his repeated protestations that he feared for his life. 

*We use our client’s initials and have redacted his name and identifying information from case documents in order to protect his privacy and security.