'Clerical error' leads to Indy migrant being wrongfully placed in deportation proceedings

Indianapolis Star

06-05-2025

A federal immigration judge was visibly irritated after learning a Honduran man had been sitting in an Indiana detention center for the past two months because of a "clerical error."
Immigration officials have been holding Amner Nunez-Vasquez without bond while trying to fast-track his deportation to Honduras. Nunez-Vasquez is one of the two people who were forcibly removed from their vehicle by federal agents in Indianapolis earlier this year and has been held in the Clay County immigration detention center since.
But Nunez-Vasquez's attorney, Elisabeth Carlson with ECG Immigration, says he's being wrongfully detained, doesn't meet the criteria for expedited removal from the U.S. and should be allowed bond while his immigration case makes its way through the courts.
In April, the Chicago Immigration Court was informed during a bond hearing that Nunez-Vasquez, who has no prior criminal record, was being detained because of a mistake in his booking information.
His case was being reviewed by Judge Samia Naseem, who was appointed to her seat in January 2020 by then-Attorney General William Barr. Since her appointment to the court in 2024, she has heard 634 asylum cases and denied 45% of them, according to TRAC, a nonprofit data research center.
During the hearing, the Department of Homeland Security 's attorney asked the judge to deny bond since the Department of Justice had plans to deport Nunez-Vasquez via expedited removal proceedings, a process that operates outside the court's jurisdiction under certain circumstances.
DHS contends Nunez-Vasquez meets the criteria because he hasn't been in the country more than two years. His booking information shows he entered the country illegally in September 2023, they said.
Nunez-Vasquez's attorney, however, said that date is incorrect and her client has been in the U.S. since September 2022.
After reviewing the information given by both attorneys, Naseem rescheduled Nunez-Vasquez's hearing and ordered his lawyer to file evidence proving he'd been in the country since 2022 with the court. The judge also said to turn that information over to the DOJ so it could rectify the error.
DOJ's error still not fixed
On April 28, Nunez-Vasquez's lawyers appeared in Naseem's courtroom virtually, expecting to move forward on his bond hearing. However, after reviewing court files, the judge noticed the "clerical error" had not been resolved by the Department of Justice.
Under terse questioning by the judge, Nunez-Vasquez's lawyer explained she's made several attempts to reach the Executive Office for Immigration Review to remedy this issue. The attorney filed several documents with the DOJ and the court, including receipts and pay stubs, proving her client has been in the U.S. since at least September 2022.
Naseem reviewed those documents before shifting her irritation toward the DHS attorney, questioning why the error wasn't fixed.
"It's clear that there is some kind of error here," Naseem said.
Naseem ordered the DHS attorney to ensure Executive Office for Immigration Review personnel resolve the issue before their next hearing on May 9.
"It's a waste of government resources," Naseem said regarding Nunez-Vasquez's continued detainment and time spent on court proceedings.
How did Nunez-Vasquez get into ICE Custody?
On Feb. 28, 2025, Nunez-Vasquez and his nephew, Jose Montoya-Lopez, who are both from Honduras, were pulled over by federal agents near the intersection of West 29th Street and Interstate 65 in Indianapolis.
The men were forced out of their vehicle by agents and placed into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. They were booked into the Marion County jail before being sent to the Clay County immigration detention facility in Brazil, Indiana.
The arrest of the two men was captured on camera and shared on social media by a family friend on March 7, 2025.
On Dec. 8, 2023, the Chicago Immigration Court issued a deportation order for Montoya-Lopez, which stemmed from an August 2020 incident when Indianapolis police arrested and preliminarily charged him with battery using a deadly weapon and battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, according to public records.
The state never formally charged Montoya-Lopez with a crime due to a lack of witness cooperation and evidentiary issues, the Marion County Prosecutor's Office said.
Either way, Montoya-Lopez was been deported to Honduras.
It was unclear what happened to Montoya-Lopez until March 30, when Univision, an American Spanish-language news broadcaster, met with him in Honduras and captured the moment he returned home to his family.
"For me, it's a joy that he has returned," Alejandrina Avila, Montoya-Lopez's grandmother, told Univision.
Montoya-Lopez also took a moment to reflect on the day he was taken into ICE custody.
"In that moment, I felt afraid because I didn't know if they were going to shoot us just for simply being from another country," Montoya-Lopez told Univision.
He explained that he decided to record the interaction, believing that he and his uncle would have the opportunity to plead their case in court. However, due to his pending deportation order, he never had the chance.
Montoya-Lopez's wife and their 3-year-old daughter remain in the U.S. and are struggling to get by without their sole provider, but she's glad he's safe.
"He's back with his family," she told IndyStar.
Nunez-Vasquez's fate remains uncertain.