Osiris Deyanin Godinez Montano entered the United States in 2022 without inspection. According to her petition, she was held hostage by a criminal group after crossing the border — a situation that prevented her from applying for asylum or other relief. The criminal group, the petition states, took her to the hospital when she went into labor and watched over her delivery to ensure she did not report them to officials, then forced her to live on the porch with her newborn baby and do all household work until her mother paid the criminal group an unspecified amount of money for her release. She has since lived in Indiana with her partner and four young children, two of whom are U.S. citizens. She was pulled over in January 2026 for driving without a valid license, appeared for her court date only to be told she was not in the system, and was later arrested for failing to appear for a court date. She was then transferred to immigration detention at Grayson County Jail in the Western District of Kentucky.
The legal dispute turns on a July 8, 2025 DHS interim guidance document titled "Interim Guidance Regarding Detention Authority for Applicants for Admission," which reversed longstanding policy by directing that only noncitizens already admitted to the United States are eligible for release during removal proceedings — subjecting all others to mandatory detention under Section 1225 rather than Section 1226. ICE applied that guidance to Montano, denying her a bond hearing.
Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, relying on her prior rulings in Edahi v. Lewis and Vicen v. Lewis, held that Section 1226 — not Section 1225 — governs Montano's detention because she has been present in the United States for approximately four years and is not seeking admission. The government incorporated by reference its briefs in four pending Sixth Circuit appeals raising the same statutory question — Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft, Alvarez v. Noem, Contreras-Cervantes v. Raycraft, and Pizarro Reyes v. Raycraft — and conceded that the only relevant legal question is which statute applies.
Applying the Mathews v. Eldridge balancing test, the court held that all three factors favor Montano. Her private liberty interest is substantial; she has no criminal or civil record outside of the pending charge related to operating a motor vehicle without a license; the government did not demonstrate that Montano is a flight risk or a danger to the community; and a routine bond hearing before an immigration judge imposes minimal administrative burden on the government.
The court ordered Montano's immediate release and directed the government to provide her a bond hearing before a neutral immigration judge pursuant to Section 1226. The government was required to certify compliance by April 18, 2026. The court was explicit that the release flows from the unlawful detention itself — specifically, the violation of her due process rights — not merely from the determination that Section 1226 applies.
The ruling is the latest in a series of district court decisions pushing back against the DHS interim guidance, with four related cases already before the Sixth Circuit.