A federal judge has ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Springfield resident Elisthene Petit Kat within a week or give him a bond hearing before an immigration judge, rejecting the government's claim that he could be held indefinitely without one. The ruling, issued by Judge Michael Barrett, lands in the middle of a broader standoff over whether noncitizens swept up during interior arrests can be jailed without ever getting a chance to argue for release.
Barrett, based in the Southern District of Ohio, ruled that ICE must release Petit Kat or provide him a bond hearing before an immigration judge, rejecting the agency's position that he was subject to mandatory detention as an applicant seeking admission, according to the Springfield News-Sun. If ICE opts to keep him detained rather than release him, the agency must provide clear and convincing evidence explaining why Petit Kat is a flight risk or a danger to the community, and the immigration judge weighing that question must also consider less restrictive alternatives to detention.
Petit Kat entered the United States lawfully in June 2023, coming with his partner and young daughter to flee violence, and he was later granted humanitarian parole and applied for asylum. He has lived in the U.S. for years, working at an automotive parts assembly factory and supporting his family as its sole provider, while also supporting his 7-year-old son back in Haiti. He attended an immigration court hearing in July and had an ongoing immigration case when he was arrested.
How the Arrest Unfolded
Petit Kat was arrested on August 15 after riding as a passenger in a vehicle stopped by North Hampton police officers in Clark County. The North Hampton Police Department has an agreement with ICE allowing its officers to perform certain immigration enforcement activities — the kind of local-federal arrangement governed by Section 287(g) agreements, under which the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memorandum specifies that participating officers keep their ordinary jurisdiction but may only exercise delegated immigration authority under the agreement's own terms.
According to the petition described in the same News-Sun report, Petit Kat was arrested for allegedly missing a hearing he says he was never informed about, was not immediately served with a warrant, and did not speak with an ICE officer for several days after being jailed. His petition further alleged that he was never assessed for danger or flight risk — the very questions a bond hearing is supposed to answer. His attorney argued that the arrest violated his rights and that continued detention without bond was unlawful. ICE, for its part, said Petit Kat arrived at a port of entry, applied for admission, and was paroled by immigration officials, which it argued made him subject to mandatory detention as an applicant seeking admission.
Five Other Haitians Fighting the Same Battle
Petit Kat is one of six Haitian citizens who have challenged the legality of their ICE detention at Butler County Jail, the paper's reporting shows. Darline Jean Baptiste, 33, was arrested while returning from work in Springfield and has been held at Butler County Jail since mid-August; she entered the U.S. through a Florida airport in November 2023, has two children in Haiti she supports financially, and says she fled Haiti because of daily threats of violence and death. An immigration judge denied her a bond hearing because she was considered an arriving alien, even though she has committed to attending future hearings and complying with court restrictions. She has filed her own habeas corpus petition seeking a bond hearing or release.
Peterson Nozil, 37, has lived in the U.S. since August 2022 and was granted parole and temporary protected status before applying for asylum. He was arrested while traveling home with his family and submitted a habeas corpus petition in federal district court on October 1, seeking a bond hearing and release. Jean Alix Comper was arrested by ICE in Englewood on September 4 and is also challenging his detention at Butler County Jail. The group also includes Paulson Saintelien, 42, and Jodas Etienne, 33, who has been held at Butler County Jail for two months — both likewise seeking a bond hearing and release, per the News-Sun.
A Legal Fight Playing Out Nationwide
The dispute centers on a policy the Trump administration formalized through a July 2025 ICE memo that treats certain noncitizens targeted for deportation as applicants for admission, subjecting them to mandatory detention without bond hearings during removal proceedings, according to the National Immigration Forum. The administration has asserted that federal immigration law requires mandatory detention without bond for unlawfully present noncitizens arrested during removal proceedings, per the News-Sun's reporting.
Federal appeals courts have split sharply on the question. Nine of the 13 federal appeals courts have ruled the policy unlawful, while two have sided with the administration, the News-Sun reports. The Sixth Circuit — which covers Ohio — rejected the interpretation that unlawfully present noncitizens are automatically subject to mandatory detention, concluding that the government's failure to provide bond was unlawful in part because noncitizens in the country must receive due process, and that the government's ability to detain noncitizens is not limitless. The National Immigration Forum notes that the Sixth Circuit joined the Second and Eleventh circuits in rejecting the policy, while the Fifth and Eighth circuits have upheld it.
The U.S. Supreme Court has now agreed to review the legality of the policy, taking up the case of Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian citizen whom authorities say entered the country illegally two decades ago and applied for asylum in 2016, according to PBS News. Local advocacy groups expect more detainees in southwest Ohio to file similar detention challenges, and the News-Sun reports that Barrett's decision could serve as a bellwether for some of those cases.
Inconsistent Rulings Even Within One District
Immigration attorney Kathleen Kersh told the News-Sun that immigration judges continue classifying people granted parole years ago as arriving aliens despite district court rulings to the contrary, and that some Southern District judges decide that people paroled into the country and later arrested in the interior are not arriving aliens at all — a split that leaves outcomes depending heavily on which judge hears a given case.
The stakes of these rulings are magnified by how rarely asylum claims succeed. The national asylum grant rate fell to just 5.5% in June, with 94.1% of cases denied, the News-Sun reports, and many ICE detainees nationwide have spent up to six months in jail, with some held between six months and two years. Haitian nationals filed 25,640 affirmative asylum applications and 53,830 defensive applications in fiscal year 2024, yet the U.S. government granted asylum to just 160 Haitian applicants that year, according to the same reporting.
