Kelvin N. v. Bondi
Kelvin N. v. Pamela Bondi, Attorney General; Kristi Noem, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Todd M. Lyons, Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; David Easterwood, Acting Director, St. Paul Field Office Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Ryan Shea, Sheriff of Freeborn County
- Jeffrey Bryan
- 0:26-cv-00032
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 8
Counsel of record per CourtListener. Firm names are approximate.
In Kelvin N. v. Bondi, Judge Bryan granted detention relief in part and ordered a bond hearing under discretionary immigration detention law.
Kelvin N., who was detained by immigration officials, was entitled to a bond hearing; the respondent officials and Ryan Shea were ordered to comply with the hearing, reporting, and removal-related requirements.
What happened
Kelvin N. v. Pamela Bondi involved Kelvin N., who had been detained by immigration officials after entering the United States without inspection and applying for asylum. He asked for release or, alternatively, a bond hearing. He represented himself, while the respondents were represented by government attorneys.
The court decided that the mandatory-detention rule for people seeking admission did not apply because Kelvin N. had been living in the United States and was not currently seeking to enter it. The court instead concluded that the law governing people already in the country applied and entitled him to a bond hearing.
Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan granted the petition in part and denied it in part. He ordered the respondents to provide a bond hearing by January 13, 2026, and required Kelvin N.’s release if they failed to do so. The court denied any additional relief and set deadlines for reporting the hearing’s results or Kelvin N.’s release.
The detailed version
- Kelvin N. v. Bondi · No. 0:26-cv-00032
- Jeffrey M. Bryan
- Jan. 8, 2026
Background
Kelvin N. filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging his immigration detention. The opinion states that he is a citizen of Ecuador who entered the United States without inspection in June 2021. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released him under an Order of Recognizance on July 1, 2021, and he reported as directed. He later received a notice charging him as removable under sections 212(a)(6)(A)(i) and 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Kelvin N. applied for asylum on April 30, 2024. His asylum application was pending, and an immigration-court hearing on his asylum claim was scheduled for February 4, 2026. Respondents took him into custody on or about December 12, 2025, and canceled his Order of Recognizance. He then sought immediate release or, alternatively, a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a).
Legal issue
The dispute concerned which immigration-detention statute governed Kelvin N. Respondents argued that 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b) required mandatory detention because Kelvin N. was present in the United States without having been admitted. The court rejected that interpretation.
The court explained that section 1225(b)(2) applies to a person who is currently an applicant for admission and currently seeking admission. Because Kelvin N. had been living in the United States since entering in 2021, the court concluded that he was not currently seeking entry. The court also reasoned that treating section 1225(b) as covering all noncitizens present without admission would make recently added mandatory-detention categories under section 1226(c) unnecessary.
The court further concluded that Kelvin N.’s pending asylum application did not change the result. Applying for asylum did not mean that a person who had already entered and was living in the United States was actively seeking lawful entry. The court therefore held that section 1225(b) was inapplicable and that section 1226(a), which provides a discretionary detention process for people already present in the United States and eligible for removal, governed Kelvin N.’s detention.
Ruling and order
Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan granted the petition in part and denied it in part. The respondents were ordered to provide Kelvin N. with a bond hearing under section 1226(a) immediately and no later than 5:00 p.m. Central Time on January 13, 2026. If they did not provide the hearing, they were ordered to release him immediately.
The court also ordered the respondents not to remove, transfer, or otherwise facilitate Kelvin N.’s removal from the District of Minnesota before complying with the order’s requirements. The court required a status update by 11:00 a.m. Central Time on January 14, 2026. The court declined to address immediate release as a separate remedy because the petition did not develop an argument that Kelvin N.’s arrest or the cancellation of his release order was unlawful apart from the challenge to detention without a bond hearing. To the extent Kelvin N. sought additional relief, the petition was denied.
Read the full 8-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.