Due Process Lawsuit Prompts Man's Release from ICE Detention

LINCOLN, Neb. – A man who cannot return to his home country will be able to work through next steps while in the community instead of in detention.

On Thursday, a federal judge granted an unopposed motion to dismiss Semere Gherezgiher’s case. Officials released him from the detention facility in McCook, Nebraska, earlier this week. He is now back in Eagan, Minnesota, under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervision.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska represented Gherezgiher in a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking his release. The lawsuit, launched in early February, argued that his individual circumstances and the government's handling of his case had effectively subjected him to indefinite detention, violating his right to due process and U.S. Supreme Court precedent that limits how long someone may be detained following an order of removal.

Last week, a federal judge ordered the government to respond to Gherezgiher’s lawsuit. Instead of contesting his claims, immigration officials chose to release him under supervision.

Gherezgiher has been living in a kind of legal limbo for years. In 2016, he fled Eritrea, a country with well-documented human rights abuses. When he arrived in the United States several years later, an immigration court judge ordered his removal while also specifying that he cannot be returned to Eritrea under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The court did not order his detention. Gherezgiher moved to Minnesota. ICE took him into custody in May of 2025 and moved him to the McCook facility later that year.

Immigration authorities tried to deport Gherezgiher to Germany but failed to secure necessary documentation, leaving no end in sight for his ongoing detention and no clear path to a timely release or removal. His lawsuit cited a 2001 Supreme Court case, Zadvydas v. Davis, which held that immigration officials may not detain immigrants indefinitely after they are ordered removed.

Gherezgiher says he is getting settled back in Minnesota and hopes to figure out his next steps soon. Under ICE supervision, he will wear a GPS monitor and regularly check in at one of ICE's field offices.

ACLU of Nebraska Staff Attorney Grant Friedman said:

“Most of us can only imagine the dangers Semere fled in his home country, and the hardships he has experienced since then. We are relieved that he is now back in a place he knows instead of behind barbed wire. His detention was unnecessary and became plainly unlawful when officials failed to find a path for his removal but continued detaining him with no end in sight. We know his journey is not done, and we hope the best for him.”

Gherezgiher is the fifth ACLU of Nebraska client to leave ICE detention this year. Last year, ACLU of Nebraska lawsuits prompted the release of three women who were separated from their families after an ICE workplace raid in Omaha. Advocacy efforts led to the release of a fourth client, a man with two young children at home.