Franklin Ezequiel Salgado Bustos v. Kevin Raycraft, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detroit Field Office, Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Kristi Noem, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Pamela Bondi, U.S. Attorney General

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedOctober 29, 2025
Docket2:25-cv-13202
StatusUnknown

This text of Franklin Ezequiel Salgado Bustos v. Kevin Raycraft, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detroit Field Office, Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Kristi Noem, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Pamela Bondi, U.S. Attorney General (Franklin Ezequiel Salgado Bustos v. Kevin Raycraft, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detroit Field Office, Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Kristi Noem, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Pamela Bondi, U.S. Attorney General) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Franklin Ezequiel Salgado Bustos v. Kevin Raycraft, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detroit Field Office, Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Kristi Noem, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Pamela Bondi, U.S. Attorney General, (E.D. Mich. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

FRANKLIN EZEQUIEL SALGADO BUSTOS,

Petitioner, No. 25-13202

v. Honorable Nancy G. Edmunds

KEVIN RAYCRAFT, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detroit Field Office, Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; KRISTI NOEM, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; PAMELA BONDI, U.S. Attorney General,

Respondents. ______________________________________/

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS [1]

Petitioner Franklin Ezequiel Salgado Bustos (Salgado Bustos) filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. (ECF No. 1.) Salgado Bustos asserts that Respondents have detained him in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and that his continued detention violates his Fifth Amendment right to due process. Salgado Bustos, a Nicaraguan citizen, is being held at North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan pending immigration proceedings to remove him from the United States and for determination of his asylum application. The Court held a hearing on Salgado Bustos’ Petition for Writ Habeas Corpus on October 27, 2025. For the reasons below, the Court finds that Salgado Bustos’ mandatory detention is unlawful and a violation of his due process rights and orders his immediate release. Accordingly, the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is GRANTED. In addition, the Court will dismiss all Respondents except for Salgado Bustos’ immediate custodian, Acting ICE Field Office Director Kevin Raycraft. I. Background

Mr. Salgado Bustos is a Nicaraguan citizen who unlawfully entered the United States without inspection or admission near Calexico, California, on November 20, 2022. A Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) official encountered and arrested Salgado Bustos at the border. An immigration officer determined Salgado Bustos entered the United States unlawfully, lacking valid immigration documents, which rendered him inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6) and (a)(7). During his detention, Salgado Bustos claimed that he feared persecution if he was returned to Nicaragua. On November 22, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) granted Salgado Bustos temporary parole under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5)(A) and released him into the United States. DHS issued Salgado Bustos a Form I-385 Notice to Report, which

required him to report to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office near his final destination within 60 days. Salgado Bustos reported to the ICE Detroit office as directed on January 20, 2023. At the check in, he received a DHS Form G-56 Call-In Letter, which required him to present himself to the Detroit ICE office on March 26, 2025, for “processing and issue NTA [Notice to Appear].” Salgado Bustos reported to the Detroit ICE office on March 26, 2025. By this time, he had been living continuously in Ann Arbor, Michigan for over two years. He had a pending asylum application with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) since November 20, 2023. USCIS issued him a work permit on May 18, 2024. Salgado Bustos’s parole expired in 2023, but he had not re-detained. On March 26, 2025, ICE did not issue Salgado Bustos a Notice to Appear (NTA) or an order of expedited removal. Rather, ICE officers instructed him to return for a follow-up check-in with all of his immigration documentation on September 28, 2025.

Salgado Bustos went to the ICE Detroit office on Sunday, September 28, 2025, but the office was closed. Salgado returned on September 29 and showed the ICE officer his asylum application, a photo of his work permit, which was valid through 2029, and his passport. The ICE officer arrested Salgado Bustos and entered an order of expedited removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1)(A)(iii). (ECF No. 5-4, PageID.65-66.) Salgado Bustos told the officer he feared persecution if returned to Nicaragua (ECF No. 5-2, PageID.59; Walker Decl., ¶ 10). The officer took Salgado Bustos’ documents described above as well as his driver’s license, social security card, car title, loan documents, paystubs, and wallet. An ICE official gave Salgado Bustos a document which the interpreter said was for

him to pursue his asylum case while in detention. (ECF No. 8-2, PageID.94; Salgado Bustos Decl. at ¶21.) Salgado signed the document, which was in fact an expedited removal order. (Id.) Since Salgado Bustos filed his habeas petition, USCIS scheduled a credible fear interview (CFI), which was conducted telephonically on October 14, 2025. (Daniel Decl. ¶¶ 4-9.) Salgado Bustos’ immigration attorney attended the CFI. Following the CFI, Salgado Bustos’s asylum application was administratively closed. (Walker Decl., ¶7, ECF No. 5-2, PageID.58; Marin Decl., ¶¶ 4-5.) On October 17, 2025, Respondents informed Salgado Bustos that he had not passed his CFI. (Marin Decl., ¶ 3.) Salgado Bustos invoked his right to have an Immigration Judge review the denial of his CFI. Id. On October 21, 2025, ICE docketed Salgado Bustos’ request for an Immigration Judge’s review of the CFI determination, and he is scheduled to appear before an Immigration Judge in Detroit following a decision by this Court on his habeas petition.

In his habeas petition, Salgado Bustos challenges Respondents’ application of the expedited removal procedures and mandatory detention provisions under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1). He does not challenge the decisions made by USCIS during his CFI or his underlying affirmative asylum application. Salgado Bustos maintains that Respondents are holding him in physical custody without following the INA and its regulations, and in violation of his due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. As relief, Salgado Bustos argues this Court should order his immediate release. Salgado Bustos also asks the Court to rescind the expedited removal order issued on September 29, 2025; require the government to issue a Notice to Appear which would place him in Section 240 removal proceedings; and require the reopening of his asylum application with USCIS.

II. Respondents other than the ICE Field Office Director will be dismissed A writ of habeas corpus may only be issued “to the person having custody of the person detained.” 28 U.S.C. § 2243. Courts interpret a detained noncitizen’s immediate custodian as “the person exercising daily control over his affairs,” such as “the warden of the facility where the alien is detained or the INS District Director of the district where the alien is being detained.” Roman v. Ashcroft, 340 F.3d 314, 320 (6th Cir. 2003). Respondents in this case include the Acting Director of the Detroit Field Office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division Kevin Raycraft; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem; and United States Attorney General Pamela Bondi. Salgado Bustos names the individual defendants in their official capacities. Salgado Bustos acknowledges that Acting ICE Field Office Director Raycraft is his immediate custodian. (ECF No. 1, PageID.7.) Therefore, Respondents ask the Court to

dismiss the petition against all of them except Raycraft.

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Franklin Ezequiel Salgado Bustos v. Kevin Raycraft, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detroit Field Office, Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Kristi Noem, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Pamela Bondi, U.S. Attorney General, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/franklin-ezequiel-salgado-bustos-v-kevin-raycraft-immigration-and-customs-mied-2025.