Federal judge orders ICE to release man detained as he left Anchorage Wellness Court

U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason on Thursday ordered federal immigration authorities to release Honorio Latyr Pereira Barreto within 24 hours, finding that an immigration judge held him to the wrong legal standard and refused to take testimony from witnesses, including the municipal prosecutor in his own cases, at his bond hearing.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Barreto on June 11 as he left a hearing in Anchorage's Wellness Court, according to Gleason's order. He was arrested in 2023 and again in 2024 and charged both times with misdemeanor impaired-driving offenses, and he entered the program in November 2024. His public defender told the court the program requires near-daily treatment meetings, random urinalysis and court appearances every other week, that Barreto had complied, and that the prosecutor intends to reduce his cases to a single count when he finishes.

Barreto, a citizen of Senegal, entered the United States legally and received conditional permanent resident status in 2020. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services deemed his petition to remove the conditions abandoned and ended that status in October 2024. He filed a new petition in June, the same month removal proceedings began.

The bond hearing

Gleason barred authorities from moving Barreto out of Alaska in June, as Alaska News reported, then ordered a bond hearing. At that July 2 hearing, Barreto's lawyer sought testimony from Barreto, his public defender, his probation officer and the prosecutor. The immigration judge took no testimony and had his lawyer summarize the evidence instead. "Counsel, we've been proceeding for an hour. It is noon. The hearing is completed," she said, according to the order. She found Barreto was a danger to the community but not a flight risk and denied bond.

Gleason found the immigration judge required Barreto to prove his case by "clear and convincing evidence" when the standard is a preponderance of the evidence, a lower bar, and that shutting out the testimony violated his due process rights and "deprived Petitioner of a meaningful opportunity" to present his case. "Where all of the Wellness Court participants, including the prosecutor and the state court judge who ordered Petitioner's release, had determined that Petitioner did not represent a danger to the community at this time, the IJ abused her discretion," she wrote.

The government had argued that the court lacked jurisdiction, that Barreto should first appeal within the immigration system and that his claims were "simply rooted in disagreement" with the decision. Gleason rejected those arguments. Making Barreto wait on an appeal would prolong his detention, she wrote, citing government data showing bond appeals take an average of 204 days.

What the order requires

Barreto was being held at the Anchorage Correctional Center when Gleason ruled. The order requires his release on supervision conditions and bars authorities from detaining him again without seven days' written notice and a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker, unless there is probable cause that he has committed or is attempting to commit a crime. The government must confirm his release within two business days.