For eight months, an Oakland musician has been held in immigration detention after showing up for a scheduled check-in with federal authorities. Now, a court ruling that could reopen his asylum case has left his future hanging between a possible return to Brazil, removal to another country, and an uncertain hearing date.
Leandro Oliveira Xavier, a Brazilian artist who joined Oakland's SambaFunk! as a drummer and teacher, was arrested by immigration agents on December 4, 2025, after attending an immigration check-in in San Francisco. According to The Oaklandside, Xavier entered the United States through Mexico in 2024, was processed and released, and later applied for asylum. He is being held at ICE's Mesa Verde detention center in Bakersfield, while the agency has asked his family for his alien registration number before commenting on his case.
SambaFunk is a longtime Oakland cultural organization that offers Afro-Brazilian music, dance, and community programs. The organization's website lists its home at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, while the California Arts Council describes its programming as serving more than 1,000 participants across the Bay Area.
A Case Caught In A Policy Reversal
The central legal issue is a federal rule that made asylum harder for people who passed through another country before reaching the United States without first seeking protection there. The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies says a federal judge reaffirmed on May 7 that the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule was unlawful, with final judgment entered June 3; the rule is currently vacated and unenforceable unless the government obtains a stay.
According to The Oaklandside, immigration Judge William David Neumeister granted Xavier withholding of removal in March but did not grant asylum. His attorney, Lisa Knox, said the judge would have granted asylum without the now-invalidated rule, prompting Xavier's legal team to file a motion to reopen the case.
Why Withholding Is Not The Same As Asylum
The distinction is consequential. The Executive Office for Immigration Review says withholding of removal prevents deportation to a country where a person faces persecution, but can still allow removal to a third country where that danger is not found.
Xavier also had an immigration work permit while waiting for his case to be decided, but that authorization did not guarantee permanent protection from removal. ICE guidance treats employment authorization for asylum applicants as separate from an asylum grant and says work authorization can end after an asylum denial.
The Motion Is Pending As Immigration Courts Struggle
The motion to reopen remains pending, and the timing of a hearing is unclear. The immigration judge who ruled for Xavier was later fired as part of the Trump administration's purge of immigration judges, while his supporters say the number of available judges is now only a fraction of what it was before.
A separate June 23 ruling by a federal judge in California vacated policies that had allowed ICE to make civil immigration arrests inside immigration courts nationwide, according to the California Courts Newsroom. Xavier's reported arrest occurred at an ICE check-in rather than inside an immigration courtroom, so that ruling does not automatically resolve his detention or his pending motion.
California Reports Troubling Conditions At Mesa Verde
Xavier's detention also comes as California officials report worsening conditions across the state's immigration detention system. In a 2026 review, the California Department of Justice identified violations of ICE's own standards at all seven facilities operating in 2025, including problems involving medical care, food, water, overcrowded intake areas, and use of force.
The state review specifically included Mesa Verde, where officials found that the facility's population had surged as immigration enforcement intensified. The report does not describe Xavier's individual medical or detention records, but it provides a broader picture of the facility where he has spent most of the past year.
Oakland Supporters Keep Pressing For His Release
On Monday, supporters gathered outside ICE's San Francisco field office to demand Xavier's release, keeping the case visible in the East Bay even as the legal process crawls forward. His friends Elena and Colin Andrew Logan have visited him repeatedly in Bakersfield and say they plan to continue fighting until he can return to Oakland.
Xavier has also written a song about his detention, released in April with help from musician Amani Will. For the Oakland community that knows him as a drummer, teacher, and cultural worker, the song has become another reminder that his case is not just a legal file but an unresolved absence from the city's arts scene.
