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A Venezuelan migrant whose detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sparked a protest that involved nearly 2,000 people and led to 30 arrests is free after spending seven months in custody in Washington state, after a ruling from a federal judge who said his constitutional rights had been violated.
Joswar Torres, 29, was granted humanitarian parole in the United States and had an asylum application pending, but was nevertheless detained in June 2025 after a routine check-in at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office in Spokane, Washington.
The case garnered national attention after protesters attempted to block an ICE transport that carried Torres and another migrant to Tacoma. The protest turned contentious at times, with a government car’s windshield smashed and tire slashed, but for the most part it was peaceful, with demonstrators linking arms as they faced down masked federal agents.
A month after the protest, federal prosecutors took the unusual step of bringing conspiracy charges against nine of the demonstrators. Legal experts said the episode marked an escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on first amendment rights.
Richard Barker, a career justice department prosecutor, resigned as acting US attorney for eastern Washington state rather than sign the indictments. “No one was hurt,” Barker said. “You have people who were executing their rights to free speech. You have people who were seeing an injustice and they were saying something about it.”
Barker has since joined the law firm Singleton Schreiber, which last week helped secure an injunction that temporarily bans ICE from using teargas and projectiles on protesters in Portland.
Among those charged was Bajun Mavalwalla, an Afghanistan war veteran, who faces six years in prison if he is convicted. He pleaded not guilty and says he intends to take the case to trial.
Ben Stuckart, the former president of the Spokane city council who called for the protest in a social media post, reached an agreement with prosecutors in December, pleading guilty to felony conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer in exchange for 18 months probation. If he is found to engage in concerted action to impede a federal officer during that time he could go to prison.
Stuckart posted a photo featuring a smiling Torres last week after he was released, along with a cake to celebrate a birthday Torres missed while in custody. “We want to specifically thank all those that protested on June 11th.” Stuckart wrote. “The publicity made it possible to raise funds for his defense … He would not have been released without the actions of thousands of his fellow community members!!!”
Torres said he thanked “God for allowing me to be free”, adding that he wanted to “thank everyone for the support – not only toward me, but toward all the immigrants in this country. Please don’t stop supporting us,, because without your support I would not have made it.”
In his ruling, US district court judge James Robart, a George W Bush appointee, said that DHS officials did “not contest that they failed to consider Mr Torres’ individualized facts and circumstances” before detaining him and concluded Torres’ arrest “constitutes an abuse of DHS discretion” and violates legal prohibitions on agency action that is “not in accordance with law”.
“All persons, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to due process under the fifth amendment,” the judge wrote. “The due process clause applies to all ‘persons’ within the United States, including noncitizens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary or permanent.”
Attorneys for the Trump administration had argued the federal court lacked legal authority to review Torres’ petition for habeas corpus – a right enshrined in the US constitution that compels authorities to bring a detained person before a court to justify their imprisonment.
“This is an argument they make in every case and they almost always lose,” said Brian McGoldrick, an immigration attorney in San Diego, who in September won the release of an Afghan refugee and former US military interpreter on similar grounds.
McGoldrick said that before June 2025, he rarely filed habeas corpus petitions, but now does so about five times a week.
More than 300 federal judges had ruled against the Trump administration’s effort to lock up nearly everyone with pending deportation proceedings, ordering the release or bond hearings in more than 1,600 cases, Politico reported in January.
A national database of habeas corpus petitions reveals more than 17,000 petitions in federal court during the second Trump administration.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the Guardian questions: “It should come as no surprise that more habeas petitions are being filed by illegal aliens – especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations.”
McLaughlin said the Biden administration should not have allowed Torres to remain in the US. “Any pending asylum application does not preclude immigration enforcement,” she said. “The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”
Stuckart said Torres described difficult experiences from seven months in ICE’s Tacoma detention facility, including long delays for medical care and meals that alternated between frozen and raw meat. Dinner was served as late as one in the morning.
McLaughlin said: “All detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers and toiletries, and have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers.” Medical, dental and mental health services are available, including access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care, she said.
Stuckart said: “We are glad to have Joswar back in Spokane and can only thank the thousands of people that protested and the over 500 that subsequently contributed to his legal defense fund, but there are thousands more people being detained wrongfully right now that do not have those resources.
“Some may say there are larger issues in Minneapolis right now, but what happened seven months ago in Spokane was a canary in a coalmine and it keeps getting worse,” he added.
In the meantime, the justice department continues to seek a lengthy prison term for Mavalwalla, the war veteran. His conspiracy trial is scheduled to begin in Spokane on 18 May.
