Overview
- The mother, Liliana Navarrete, was ordered released by a U.S. district judge in Kentucky and is returning to Chicago after a habeas petition argued she had been held too long without a bond hearing.
- Her 18-year-old son, Ricardo Hernandez Navarrete, a senior at Mather High School who committed to play soccer at Truman College, remains in ICE custody at a Kentucky facility and faces missing prom and graduation.
- Both were arrested by ICE in March during a scheduled asylum check-in and were separated as they were moved through multiple detention centers before being held in Kentucky.
- Family attorneys say they will file for bond hearings and rely on a recent Sixth Circuit decision that broadened bond eligibility for detainees in Kentucky and nearby states.
- Friends and community members have raised more than $50,000 to cover legal fees and plan to press for Ricardo's release while courts and advocates test how the new appellate rulings change detention outcomes.