Dozens of non-citizens picked up by ICE indefinitely held in New Mexico detention

Sergei Izbitski is a man without a country.

For 34 years, he has lived in the U.S. after leaving his native Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic as a boy, a year before Kazakhstan declared independence in 1991. When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security tried to deport him years later, Izbitski couldn't be returned home because he isn't a Kazakh citizen. 

Instead, he was placed on supervision, a parole-like immigration status, and became a successful painting and remodeling contractor in New Jersey. Then, on June 9, he was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents without warning and transported to a cell at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia.

Now he is among more than 100 individuals arrested by the Immigration and Customs Service or U.S. Border Patrol and incarcerated in New Mexico while they wait indefinitely for a reprieve from the courts.

Izbitski, along with dozens of others, have petitioned the U.S. District Court in New Mexico to require they be granted bond reviews by immigration authorities or be released from custody on supervision.

Generally, New Mexico federal judges have ruled against the government. U.S. Magistrate judge Jennifer Rozzoni of Albuquerque has recommended his release on conditions, but Izbitski's case was still pending last week.

"Mr. Izbitski is a cornerstone of his community," wrote his Newark, New Jersey, attorney Eric Mark in a petition filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. "He has no criminal history and is a successful business owner ... he also is a homeowner. "

The 46-year-old never violated the terms of his supervision and never failed to cooperate with efforts to obtain a travel document needed for his removal from the U.S., the petition states.

"DHS' arbitrary decision to rip him away from his family, business and community in New Jersey and detain him in prison-like conditions in New Mexico is merely punitive and serves no function ...," the petition states.

His attorney, Mark, declined to comment for this story on Friday.

Izbitski, like the dozens of others in detention, contend their constitutional rights to due process are being violated by the Trump administration's new interpretation of immigration law.

That interpretation reaches "far beyond how it has been enforced historically, potentially subjecting millions more undocumented immigrants to mandatory detention ..." stated another petition filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on behalf of a citizen of India who has been living in the U.S. for two years.

That petitioner, Bachitar Singh, was apprehended and detained in 2023 but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released him on his own recognizance and granted him an employment authorization good until 2029, while he applied for asylum. 

He had been employed as a driver of a commercial vehicle up until September of this year when he was re-detained after stopping that vehicle at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in New Mexico. There was no  material change in circumstances that would have rendered him a danger or flight risk but he was apprehended nevertheless, his petition states. He's in the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral.

In Izbitski's petition, he contends he faces "potentially indefinite detention that clearly violates the Constitution of the United States."

DHS ostensibly detained Mr. Izbitski in order to eventually move him from the U.S., the petition states.

"But DHS is apparently no closer to removing him now than they were at any point since he became subject to (deportation orders) on April 27, 2006. There is no indication that DHS has obtained a travel document from any country willing to accept Mr.Izbitski," the petition states.

U.S. immigration law allows 90 days for ICE to remove a non-citizen from this country. Case law states that the non-citizen bears the burden of proving the unreasonableness of detention at that point. But after six months of indefinite detention, the burden shifts to the government to justify the continued detention, court records state.

Petitions filed in court, examined by the Journal, have typically objected to the fact that ICE has apprehended non-citizens who have put down roots in the U.S. without giving them the option for bond or conditional release. 

Responses from DHS are sealed in most of the petitions, but generally the U.S. government contends the individuals aren't entitled to such due process because the law requires mandatory detention.

"This case is among a growing number of challenges to the Government's policy of reclassifying long-term non-citizen residents in the United States as individuals 'seeking admission' into the U.S., as if they had just entered this country illegally," stated Chief U.S. District Judge for New Mexico Kenneth J. Gonzales in one ruling.

Another provision in the law that pertains to detention of non-citizens "already in the country" requires bond hearings, the ruling stated.

"Recently, however, ICE has detained long-term residents (under the admission section), thereby subjecting them to mandatory detention," the judge wrote.

Gonzales ruled in favor of  Ernesto Pu Sacvin, who lives near Washington, D.C. and was detained by ICE in September and transported to detention at the Otero County Processing Center. 

Pu Sacvin entered the U.S. in 2006 and has lives in Reston, Virginia, with his wife and three children, the judge wrote. ICE apprehended him some 20 years after his initial entry and did not apprehend him at or near the border, Gonzales wrote.

Gonzales found the proper remedy is a "prompt bond hearing at which the Government must prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that Mr. Pu Sacvin is a flight risk or a danger to the community." 

"This Court joins most other district courts in concluding that a noncitizen's  `strong private interest in being free from civil detention' outweighs the Government's comparatively minimal burden to justify custody,"  Gonzales stated.

Gonzales required the government to file a status report within 10 days to ensure compliance with his order for a hearing, and to find out whether bond was granted or not. If a lawful hearing wasn't held within seven days, Pu Sacvin was supposed to be released.

His status isn't clear because court records subsequently filed by government attorneys are sealed, as is his initial petition. Also sealed is the petition of a 27-year-old Russian woman who was arrested by ICE in Niagra Falls, New York, after living in the U.S. for several years. U.S. District Judge David Urias of New Mexico ordered her release from custody after a brief hearing on Jan. 2 in Albuquerque.

Another petition was filed by a young woman who has lived in the U.S. since 2005, arriving with her mother when she was five months old. The mother had been trafficked from Mexico into the United States. The woman, who has no criminal record, is engaged to an American citizen but was arrested by DHS agents in Los Angeles in October and incarcerated at the Otero County facility.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Matthew Garcia of Albuquerque allowed supervised release for Foad Karim Farahi, an Iranian citizen born in Kuwait who had been held for 197 days. He was picked up by ICE in Florida and jailed in New Mexico, but neither Iran nor Kuwait will accept him if he is deported, court records show.

Then there is Singh, an Indian who was released on his own recognizance in 2023 by Homeland Security and was granted an employment authorization good until 2029 while he applied for asylum.

Singh's petition "presents an issue that has been addressed now in hundreds of cases across the country as a result of a DHS policy announced on July 8, 2025 and made binding on immigration judges..," wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge Kirtan Khalsa, of Albuquerque.

Khalsa recommended on Dec. 31 that DHS provide Singh a bond hearing within five days or release him. That deadline has passed, but court records don't show his current status.

Stephanie Norton, a lawyer with the National Immigration Project in Washington, D.C., told the Journal that among the thousands of petitions filed across the country there has been widespread rejection of the government's positions by federal courts.

 "I imagine this issue will work its way to the Supreme Court (on appeal)," Norton said. "But until there's a decision from the Supreme Court, ICE will continue to aggressively pursue this policy."