A federal judge is ordering the release of an Iranian migrant and bodybuilder held by U.S. immigration authorities for over five months. Attorneys for Hamid Ziaei said Monday he was detained without apparent progress on deportation to a country other than Iran, where he fears persecution.
Ziaei's attorneys told a judge in Albuquerque that he was being held in violation of due process protections at an immigrant detention facility in New Mexico nearly six months after being taken into custody at a check-in appointment with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California.
