Embattled rule of law makes appearance in immigration court on eve of nation’s birthday 

An undocumented Las Vegas man who’s been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for months without knowing the charges against him will be released on bail, an immigration judge ruled Wednesday. 

The hearing for Alfredo Santiago Castro came four months to the day after his March 1 arrest by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, who held him for several hours until he was picked up by federal agents. 

President Donald Trump made mandatory detention of undocumented residents a tenet of his deportation policy, but in March, Federal Judge Richard Boulware of Nevada struck down the policy, allowing detainees to petition the courts for bond hearings. 

“Trump’s strategy is one of exhausting all of our efforts, especially for someone like Alfredo, who has such an abundance of positive factors to consider,” said Bliss Requa-Trautz, the executive director of Arriba Workers Center, where Santiago Castro has helped on a variety of workers’ rights campaigns. 

“It’s too hard to get to the point where justice is actually carried out. I won’t rest until he’s out,” Requa-Trautz said Thursday as she waited for Santiago Castro’s release.  

Santiago Castro has lived in Las Vegas for more than two decades and worked as a server at Delmonico’s Steakhouse in the Venetian before his arrest. He has a prior misdemeanor conviction for driving under the influence in 2012.  

He is not the “worst of the worst” – the category of undocumented offenders Trump vowed to remove from the country. In fact, he’s far from it, say dozens of supporters who attended his hearing Wednesday and a federal court hearing last month where Santiago Castro’s federal public defender sought a Writ of Habeas Corpus because his client had not been informed of the charges against him at his first bail hearing in April.

U.S. District Judge Anne Traum issued the writ and ordered Immigration Court to hold a second bail hearing.

The course of Santiago Castro’s case is “backwards” suggests Requa-Trautz of Arriba. 

Las Vegas Justice Court records indicate he was charged on April 28th, nearly two months after his arrest, with a misdemeanor for DUI. The charges were filed four days after he submitted the writ to federal court stating he had not been charged.

Santiago Castro was not served by the Clark County District Attorney’s office until Wednesday, hours before his second bail hearing. 

“I think an aggressive attorney would pursue that as a retaliatory prosecution,” said Requa-Trautz.  

Immigration Judge Daniel Daugherty noted from the bench that Santiago Castro presented the court with petitions and letters of support from a number of individuals, including Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who Santiago Castro told the judge he knows from participating in community events,

“Judges and lawyers are the only thing keeping us from a dictatorship,” Segerblom told the Current after being told Santiago Castro was granted bond. “Thank God there are three branches of government.” 

Another letter supporting Santiago Castro’s character came from a man who helps him provide water and other necessities to the homeless. 

Daugherty noted Santiago Castro was denied bail at an April 15 hearing. “I’ve got to ask you, sir. Where was this information in April?” he inquired about the character references.

Santiago Castro responded that the attorney he hired “didn’t ask for all that information. Actually, I never talked with him,” he said of attorney Peter Ashman, who Santiago Castro paid $5,000 to write the Habeas Corpus petition. Ashman, according to Requa-Trautz, never wrote it and suggested to a family member that Santiago Castro agree to leave the country. 

Ashman did not respond to a request for comment from the Current. 

Santiago Castro, who told the judge his American Dream of marrying his fiance and buying a home remains intact, rejected Ashman’s advice to leave the country and wrote the petition himself. 

Requa-Trautz says the failure of immigration attorneys to adequately represent their clients “is a trend. We have three or four clients who have had the same experience.” 

Santiago Castro told the judge his savings are gone and offered to pay $1,500 for bail. Daugherty agreed. He ordered Santiago Castro to stay away from alcohol and drugs, and to remain employed, which paradoxically requires that he and his employer break the law. 

Change of course? 

Trump’s deportation forces have apprehended roughly 400,000 individuals during the president’s second term, according to a new report from Brookings.

TRAC Immigration, which tracks removals processed through ICE, reports the administration removed 290,000 people from the country last year. 

Monthly detention of undocumented individuals in Nevada peaked in January 2025 at 1,343, up slightly from 1,279 in December of 2024, when President Joe Biden was in office. It has since slid to between 500 and 600 detentions a month. 

In the past, undocumented individuals without criminal convictions were often released from detention on bond. During Biden’s administration, the government released 35% of undocumented people within 60 days if they had no criminal convictions or order for removal before their arrest, reports the Deportation Data Center. Under Trump, those releases became rare, with just 7% released on bail. The percentage is increasing as more judges reject Trump’s detention mandate. 

In February, March, April, and May of this year, immigration officials detained 2,122 individuals in Nevada. Immigration Court held 571 bond hearings in that period and granted bail in 325 cases. 

In the last week, since the U.S. Supreme Court authorized the deportation of 400,000 people who have temporary protected status, federal authorities have ramped up operations with more than 10,000 arrests nationwide. The administration has established a new target of 2,000 arrests each day, according to news reports. 

“It’s pretty clear we’re seeing a change in strategy because the aggressive street-based enforcement tactics might scare people and might result in harm and death to people of all immigration statuses. It does not get you numbers,” observes Requa-Trautz, who notes that Trump has “killed the pull factor” that drew immigrants to the border. “People are going to Europe. People are going to Canada. You’d have to be crazy to come here. Trump’s hatred is fueled by the fact he’s still behind Barack Obama (in deportations). Obama is still the Deporter-in-Chief.”