SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month was ordered to be immediately released from a detention center on Thursday.
Lisandro Pacheco was on his way to a new job in Park City on April 29 when he was taken into custody by ICE agents before being sent to Wyoming and then California.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed Pacheco had admitted to being in the country illegally from Mexico, with his attorney, Adam Crayk, adding that his client had lived in the U.S. since he was one year old.
In his ruling Thursday, Judge Daniel Calabretta cited that the government had not made any new legal arguments as to why Pacheco should be detained, and ordered the 22-year-old to be immediately released.
Calabretta also said the government cannot impose any additional restrictions on Pacheco.
After Pacheco's detention, Crayk said his only offense was a traffic-related citation. At the time of his arrest, Pacheco's family believed he was set to graduate from the University of Utah, although he later told them from detention that he was not going to graduate because he had "ran out of money."
