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Julian fled Haiti to the United States and applied for admission using the CBP one mobile application 2023. He requested asylum due to fear of political persecution and death in Haiti and was paroled into the United States. He timely filed for asylum, and later Temporary Protected Status, and formed community in Pennsylvania. He joined a local Church where he helped expand access to services in Haitian Creole and began learning English.
ICE detained him in April of 2024, while his partner was pregnant with their first child, at Moshannon Valley Processing Center. Julian tried to find an attorney for months, but was unable to secure an attorney pro bono and did not have the funds to pay for one. He represented himself at his asylum hearing. The immigration judge at his hearing ignored evidence related to Julian’s fear of political persecution—including that his cousin had been murdered in a well-documented politically motivated act of violence—and prohibited Julian from gathering additional documents to support his claim. The immigration judge then denied Julian's request for protection.
From detention, Julian found pro bono counsel through PAIFUP who worked with him to appeal this unjust decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals and request to remand his case to the immigration judge based on new evidence he was unable to gather from detention. Throughout all this time, Julian remained detained without a bond.
In January 2026, while his case was pending, Julian was abruptly moved to a federal prison in central Pennsylvania that had a new contract with ICE. There, he was treated like a criminal even though he has never been convicted of a crime. Julian's PAIFUP attorneys partnered with co-counsel from the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project to file a habeas petition for Julian. Julian attended a hearing in Federal Court where he met his newborn son for the first time. Separated by guards, he was not allowed to touch or hold his child.
On April 3, 2026, after roughly a year in detention, a federal judge agreed with Julian that his detention was "unreasonable" and "indistinguishable from criminal punishment." The judge granted Julian's habeas corpus petition and ordered the government to provide him with a bond hearing. Julian was granted bond and, as of April 16, was finally reunited with his partner and baby. The community in central Pennsylvania rallied behind Julian and his family to raise money for his bond payment, help him find a job, and provide resources with transportation. His PAIFUP attorneys will continue to represent him as his case continues, fighting to ensure that his rights are protected.
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