QuickTake:

The 41-year-old had been held for a week after being among detainees picked up Nov. 19 in various actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Eugene and Springfield. The judge also delivered a withering critique of the initial stop.

A court hearing about the detention this month of a Venezuelan man living in Eugene ended with the man and his wife sharing a lengthy embrace, as a judge ordered his release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

“Happy. Elated,” Debra Guzman said on Wednesday, Nov. 26, when asked how she felt minutes after Chief U.S. District Judge Michael McShane ordered the release of her husband, Alvaro Esnel Guzman Guzman, 41.

In the court hearing, McShane delivered a blistering critique of the enforcement activity by ICE agents in detaining Guzman Nov. 19, a day when attorney advocates say at least 15 people were stopped and detained by ICE in Eugene and Springfield.

“It appears he was indiscriminately pulled over. A check revealed he was in the country without documentation,” McShane said. “It would be kind to call it indiscriminate. In other settings, it would be called unconstitutional.”

Guzman was driving his car to a Kia auto shop as his wife followed behind in a different vehicle, according to court documents that were filed as part of a legal petition seeking his release.

ICE agents “did not identify any reason for stopping Mr. Guzman except to check on his legal status,” the court documents state, and upon checking his identity found him as a person with a pending immigration hearing set for October 2027.

The petition for release, granted by McShane on Wednesday, stated that on the day Guzman was detained “[d]espite these facts, and despite their being no evidence that Mr. Guzman has committed any crime or other act that should change his current custody status, ICE agents made the decision to arrest him and transport him to an unknown location.”

“I had a Taser pointed at me for no reason,” Debra Guzman said Wednesday, telling a reporter that the couple did not wish to speak further.

Debra Guzman was born in Oregon, according to documents filed in the case. Her husband has no criminal history and, after marrying in April, has applied to become a legal permanent resident, court documents state. In August, Guzman received authorization to work in the United State, according to court documents.

Arrival to the United States

Guzman came to the United States in 2023 and was allowed to enter on “parole” rather than be placed in expedited removal proceedings, his attorney, Eli Moon, said in court Wednesday. Parole is permission to be physically present in the United States but is not considered official admission.

Guzman entered via the CBP One program, according to court documents. At the time he entered, the online app was considered the primary method for asylum seekers to enter the United States, according to the nonprofit advocacy group American Immigration Council.

Guzman came to the U.S. and applied for asylum, “fleeing police extortion and violence in Venezuela,” according to court documents filed by Moon and attorney Raquel Hecht, which also state that he has an immigration court hearing set for October 2027.

President Donald Trump, who has made stepped-up immigration enforcement a priority, issued on Jan. 20 an executive order to stop use of the app. Trump officials have criticized “Biden-era parole programs” for Venezuelans as well as those arriving from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.

Moon said the ICE agents on Nov. 19 made no finding that Guzman posed any flight risk or danger to the community.

ICE agents “arrested first, sought to justify later, and their justification relied on a misapplication of the relevant laws,” Moon told McShane.

But Sarah Feldman, an assistant U.S. attorney arguing for Guzman’s continued detention, stated that his initial parole had expired, so ICE had legal authority to detain him as if he had just entered the country.

McShane then asked, “because that parole expired, we just go back in time and say you’ve never been admitted?”

“I believe so,” Feldman said.

But McShane then questioned whether ICE officers assessed Guzman similarly to the type of assessment done at the border upon his entering the country.

Feldman answered that it was discretionary for the ICE officer to detain Guzman, while McShane asked when such an assessment would take place.

“How old are the officers? Do they know why they are arresting him?” McShane said, at one point referring to ICE officers detaining a high school student. News accounts have described a U.S. citizen detained in Oregon by ICE officers after being stopped while on his lunch break from school.

“The problem is … when we allow them to do these indiscriminate stops, they get to shoot first and ask questions later,” McShane said before granting the petition to release Guzman.