In a rare win against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month, a judge ordered that a detained 19-year-old asylum-seeker be released back to his family.

Oliver Mata Velasquez’s arrest outside a Buffalo, New York, court hearing on his asylum process was unlawful, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo wrote .

“Mata Velasquez followed all the rules,” Vilardo wrote, “On the other hand, the government changed the rules by fiat, applied them retroactively, and pulled the rug out from under Mata Velasquez and many like him who tried to do things the right way.”

In the weeks since, lawyers for Mata Velasquez said Vilardo’s order could influence similar cases and, they hope, lead to ICE releasing others arrested in immigration court.

Now, the New York Civil Liberties Union and oth

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