18-Year-Old Detained by ICE Day After Graduation, Released After Habeas Petition

Wilber Urbina Garcia graduated from Jordan High School in South Los Angeles on a Thursday. The next morning, ICE detained him during a routine check-in for his family’s asylum case, chained his hands and ankles, and shipped him to Adelanto.

He was 18. ICE said he was no longer part of his mother’s asylum application. His lawyer said that was wrong — he’d been a minor when the case was filed, and should have stayed on it.

Urbina Garcia spent 16 days in the Adelanto ICE Detention Center in San Bernardino County before a federal habeas corpus petition got him out. The petition, filed by the federal public defender’s office in Los Angeles, challenged the legality of his detention. The government approved his release on June 26.

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Inside Adelanto, Urbina Garcia — round-faced, in glasses, shorter than the men around him — looked younger than 18. The other detainees, most in their 40s, were shocked to see him there.

“What happened to you? You’re too young to be locked up in here with us,” one man said.

The men gave him phone calls, instant noodles, chips, cookies, coffee. They prayed over him before his bond hearing. When the bond was denied and he came back to bed 23, they kept him grounded. One man made him a notebook out of old chip bags and cardboard. Another made rosaries out of stale bread.

Urbina Garcia’s family fled Nicaragua in 2022, citing political persecution under President Daniel Ortega’s government. They turned themselves in at the border. His mother, Yadira Garcia, filed for asylum and listed Wilber, then 15, and his younger sister as dependents.

When ICE detained him the day after graduation, agents told him he was now an adult and no longer part of his mother’s case. A DHS spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that a child attached to a parent’s immigration case does not lose the claim upon turning 18 — but that a pending asylum application doesn’t confer legal status. ICE argued his initial entry was illegal, making him ineligible for bond.

His bond hearing on June 24 went nowhere. He went back to bed 23. The cell flooded with sewage that night. The men were denied yard time the next day as punishment for not cleaning it themselves.

Two days later, a guard called his bed number in the afternoon. “Casa,” the guard said. Time to go home.

The holding cell erupted in cheers. One man immediately called Urbina Garcia’s older brother to make sure someone would pick him up — detainees are often released with no warning, no charged phone, dropped at a plaza miles from home.

Urbina Garcia can no longer be detained by ICE as long as he doesn’t commit any crimes, his attorneys say. His family is still fighting their removal case in court. They still have regular ICE check-ins.

He’s spent his time since release playing video games, going to the movies with his siblings, trying to get his summer back. He prays the men he was detained with get to go home too.

The Breakdown

• Wilber Urbina Garcia, 18, was detained by ICE the day after his high school graduation, during a routine check-in tied to his family’s asylum case.
• ICE said he was no longer covered by his mother’s asylum application because he’d turned 18; his lawyer said he should have remained a dependent because he was a minor when the case was filed.
• He was held at the Adelanto ICE Detention Center for 16 days. A bond hearing on June 24 was denied.
• The federal public defender’s office in Los Angeles filed a habeas corpus petition — a legal challenge to the detention itself — on his behalf. The government approved his release on June 26.
• His family’s asylum case is ongoing. He has regular ICE check-ins but cannot be detained again unless he commits a crime, his attorneys say.

What This Means for You

This story shows how detention policies play out in practice: an 18-year-old detained the day after graduation, held in conditions that included sewage flooding and denied yard time as punishment, released after a legal petition challenged his detention.

Urbina Garcia’s case was resolved through intervention by the federal public defender’s office. Others in similar situations may not have access to that help.

What to Watch

ICE told Urbina Garcia he was ineligible for his mother’s asylum case because he’d turned 18. DHS told the Times that turning 18 doesn’t strip a derivative asylum claim — but argued his entry was still illegal, blocking bond. That’s a lot of legal maneuvering around a kid who crossed the border at 15 with his family and turned himself in.

Urbina Garcia’s attorneys got him out with a habeas petition — a basic legal tool that protects people from being unlawfully detained. That it took a federal public defender stepping in to get an 18-year-old released after 16 days raises the question of how many people in similar situations don’t have that help.

And there’s this: the men detained with Urbina Garcia — the ones who gave him food, phone calls, handmade notebooks, prayers — are still there. They’re the ones ICE says don’t belong here. Worth asking what that judgment is actually based on.