A United States District Judge, Robert Huie, has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release a Nigerian immigrant, Adeyemi Olufowora, who had been held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility since September 2025.
Huie of the Southern District of California gave the order after ruling that immigration authorities failed to follow due process in handling Olufowora’s detention and the revocation of his supervised release.
Court documents showed that Olufowora entered the United States through the El Paso port of entry in Texas in 2013 without valid travel documents and was immediately taken into custody by immigration officials, who commenced deportation proceedings against him.
An immigration judge later approved his removal from the country, a decision he did not challenge. However, his deportation was delayed after immigration authorities were unable to secure travel documents required for his return to Nigeria within the legally permitted deportation window.
After spending about six months in detention without progress on his removal, Olufowora was released under an order of supervision in September 2013, a status he reportedly maintained without incident for over a decade.
The situation changed in September 2025 when immigration officials moved to enforce the earlier deportation order and detained him again.
Olufowora subsequently challenged the action in court, alleging that authorities revoked his supervised release without prior notice, thereby violating established procedures.
During proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that officials did not provide written notice explaining the revocation or grant him an opportunity to respond, though the agency argued that the omission did not amount to a denial of due process.
In his February 13 ruling, the judge faulted the agency, stressing that government institutions are bound to comply with their own regulations.
He subsequently directed the Department of Homeland Security to release Olufowora within one business day, subject to the terms of his earlier supervision order.
