A Rohnert Park father says 20 days in immigration detention shook him so badly that he came close to asking to self-deport, all because of what he describes as a missed photo check-in on a government app. He says the arrest, weeks in custody and a denied bond hearing left him convinced he might never see his wife and children again.
The man, who asked reporters to use the pseudonym Giovanni, says he and his wife and kids were granted humanitarian parole after arriving from Ecuador and were told to check in every week by uploading a geolocated selfie through a phone app. Days after he missed a late-September upload, he says he was called into the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in San Francisco. Instead of fixing the missed photo, he says officers arrested him, as reported by Northern California Public Media.
Moved Miles From Home, 'Worst Days' In A Cell
Giovanni describes the first four days in custody as the worst of his life. He says he was held in a shared cell with a single toilet, slept on the floor and spent each day making frantic phone calls to his wife while he waited for someone to tell him what would happen next. He says he was eventually moved to the facility in California City and given an orange jumpsuit that he was told is typically used for mid-level security classifications. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facility page lists the complex at 22844 Virginia Boulevard. Giovanni says he was denied bond and told his next hearing would not happen for months.
Lawyers Push Back With A Habeas Filing
Nicole Gorney, supervising attorney at VIDAS legal services in the North Bay, filed a habeas petition that her office says demands the government spell out a lawful reason for keeping Giovanni in custody. As reported by Northern California Public Media, Gorney argues that simply telling someone they are “in proceedings” is not, by itself, a legal justification to hold them. She also says habeas filings in California have surged this year. Her position in the local legal community is outlined by VIDAS legal services.
Numbers Show Growing Pressure To Leave
Advocates say Giovanni’s story tracks with what they describe as a national pattern of detained immigrants feeling forced to drop their cases and accept voluntary departure just to get out of custody. Reuters, citing data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, reports that court-approved voluntary departures climbed sharply in 2025, topping 16,000 in the first eight months of the year and hitting a record month of more than 6,000 in August. Reuters reports that increase as part of broader enforcement changes.
On his 20th day in custody, Giovanni says immigration agents called his bed number, then abruptly released him and sent him back home to his wife and children. He still has a pending asylum case and says he is now weighing a wrenching choice: keep fighting in court or accept voluntary departure to avoid the possibility of landing back in a cell.
