ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—Innovation Law Lab filed its first multi-petitioner habeas corpus petition in the district of New Mexico Tuesday challenging the unlawful, prolonged detention of four individuals detained at the Torrance County Detention Facility. 

“When the government deprives a person of their freedom, they must have a legitimate reason to do so and follow the legal processes required to take away their liberty, ” said Tiffany Wang, fellow attorney at Innovation Law Lab.  “Our clients, like countless others, are stuck in immigration detention, not for any lawful reason but purely to further the Trump administration’s objective of creating the largest mass detention and deportation system in history. This is a violation of basic due process and a waste of public resources on a detention system that exists to grow itself.”

The petitioners are four men who are being held in ICE detention at the remote detention facility in New Mexico with notoriously egregious conditions. Three of the men have protection from deportation to their home countries, and the fourth has been living in the United States since 1999 and was ordered removed 20 years ago after missing an immigration court hearing he did not know about. They have been detained between four and ten months since their immigration cases ended with no end in sight.

Nearly 1,000 habeas corpus petitions have been filed in the District of New Mexico in 2026 alone. Nationwide, ProPublica reports over 38,625 habeas cases have been filed since January 2025 by immigrants challenging their unlawful detention. 

“The government’s unlawful detention of people they have no ability to–or intention of–deporting is widespread and violates immigration law and the right to due process under the U.S. Constitution, ” said Rachel Landry, staff attorney at Innovation Law Lab. “We filed a group habeas petition to show that the government’s unlawful and cruel conduct is not isolated but rather ubiquitous and by design. We are hoping to win freedom for more people at once to better meet the scale of need.”

The case filings are online at https://innovationlawlab.org/case/diaz-cervantes-et-al-v-ortiz