Iranian Activist Released After Nearly Three Years in ICE Detention

November 12, 2025, El Paso, Texas — A 23-year-old Iranian woman was released today after spending nearly three years in ICE detention. Persecuted in Iran and locked up shortly after her arrival in the United States seeking asylum, Melika Olya brought a case in March challenging the legality of her indefinite detention. Last month, a federal judge ordered ICE to release or deport her by no later than November 14, 2025.

Ms. Olya fled to the U.S. from Iran in January 2023 after the morality police attacked her for protesting mandatory hijab laws. Despite a strong case and an initial finding showing a credible fear of further persecution in Iran, an immigration judge denied her request for asylum and ordered her deported.

For decades, the U.S. government has generally provided protection to Iranian refugees. This has changed in recent months as the Trump administration seeks to expel Iranians as part of its broad crackdown on immigrants.

“The fact that Melika has needlessly spent nearly three years of her young life in detention is a tragedy,” said Zoe Bowman, attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. “ICE has made every excuse to keep her in detention for years well after it was reasonable to do so, but Melika is a remarkable person who remained hopeful for her future every step of the way. I’m thrilled that today we get to celebrate her long-deserved freedom from ICE custody.”

While the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes a 90-day mandatory detention period after a person has been ordered removed while ICE arranges for their deportation, people detained beyond the 90-day period should be released if their deportation is not significantly likely in the reasonably foreseeable future. At the time of filing her case in March 2025, Ms. Olya had been in ICE detention for over two years and had been detained for nearly 19 months since being ordered removed – well beyond the 90-day mandatory detention period. Since Ms. Olya was not likely to be removed to Iran in the foreseeable future, legal precedent and the Constitution required that she be released immediately. Last month, a federal district court judge agreed, ordering Ms. Olya’s release if she was not deported by November 14.

Ms. Olya’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus was litigated on her behalf by Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Texas A&M School of Law Civil Rights Clinic. It raised claims under the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the government from depriving any person of liberty without the due process of law. Prolonged and indefinite civil detention violates that constitutional principle.

“For nearly three years, the government has held Melika in ICE detention with no end in sight, punishing her for geopolitical realities beyond her control,” said Ayla Kadah, an attorney and fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights who argued for Ms. Olya’s release before the court in El Paso in August. “As we celebrate Melika’s freedom, we recognize that it comes after years of needless suffering inflicted by a system that criminalizes migration and cages immigrants in abhorrent conditions.”


For more information, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights case page:
https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/ice-habeas-iranian-immigrant-detained-el-paso


The New Mexico Immigrant Law Center is a non-profit organization seeking to advance justice and equity by empowering low-income immigrant communities through collaborative legal services, advocacy, and education.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.

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