Managing Partner Michael Wildes is pleased to announce that the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico has granted our client’s petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus.
On March 11, 2026, the Honorable Judge Kea W. Riggs ordered the immediate release of our client—an elderly father of two United States citizen children—who had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than eight months. Judge Riggs determined that our client’s continued detention violated longstanding constitutional limits on immigration detention.
The Habeas Petition relied on the United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, which holds that noncitizens with final orders of removal may not be detained indefinitely when the government cannot demonstrate that removal is reasonably foreseeable. In this case, we argued that although our client had a decades-old removal order, the government failed to establish that it could realistically carry out his deportation in the foreseeable future. After months of detention, ICE was unable to provide evidence of meaningful efforts to secure travel documentation for our client, or that removal to his native country—or any other country—was reasonably likely.
We further argued that ICE would continue to face significant obstacles in obtaining travel documentation due to the absence of recorded identity documents in our client’s native country, a consequence of deficient recordkeeping following that country’s split from the Soviet Union.
In granting habeas relief, the Court recognized that continued detention under these circumstances raises serious due process concerns. The ruling underscores the critical protections established in Zadvydas, which guard against indefinite immigration detention and ensure that due process rights remain meaningful even after a final order of removal.
Special thanks to Navjot Khinda, Senior Attorney in our Litigation Department, for her outstanding work and strong advocacy in securing this result.
Wildes & Weinberg, P.C. was founded in 1960 by Michael’s father, Leon Wildes, whose best-known accomplishment was his successful representation of John Lennon in his widely publicized deportation proceedings (the circumstances of which have inspired several films and documentaries). The firm specializes exclusively in the practice of U.S. immigration and nationality law, has a distinguished domestic and international clientele, and can assist with any type of immigration matter including employment and investment-based immigration, work permits, permanent residence for qualified individuals, family-based immigration, asylum applications, all temporary and permanent type visas, and U.S. citizenship.
In addition to running a highly successful immigration law practice, Michael is also currently serving his fifth term as Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, is the author of Safe Haven in America: Battles to Open the Golden Door (which draws on over a quarter of a century of his practice in the immigration field), and is an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.
Moreover, Michael is internationally renowned for his successful representation of distinguished individuals and corporate clients such as performing artists, directors, writers, models, actors/actresses, athletes, race car drivers, fine artists, art dealers, curators, musicians, photographers, stylists, and literary agents. Some of the firm’s other distinguished clients include scholar Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (z’l), as well as soccer icon Pele and Karim Benzema, Master Chef Jean-Georges, Yoko Ono Lennon, and First Lady Melania Trump and her family.
Today the firm of Wildes & Weinberg has offices in New York City, New York, Englewood, New Jersey, Miami, Florida, a presence in Los Angeles, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel, and continues to maintain its stellar reputation in the field of U.S. Immigration & Nationality Law.
For more information on our firm please visit www.wildeslaw.com or contact Michael Wildes at michael@wildeslaw.com.