Yarmin Rodriguez-Carmona was outside playing basketball. Jesus Castro Sanchez was operating a leaf blower near a busy intersection. And Alicia Mauricio Diego was in the passenger seat of her cousin's car on the way to the supermarket.

All were swept up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol agents in the Chicago area in September and October, then taken across state lines to the North Lake Processing Center in northern Michigan, where they were held without bond.

Each of them, like hundreds of other immigrants held in Michigan detention centers, turned to the federal court system for help.

More than ever, efforts by immigrants, their lawyers and allies to gain release from ICE custody pending their deportation hearings are playing out in federal district courts and

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