Canadian-born dentist freed after judge rules ICE detention lacked legal basis

A Canadian-born dentist detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a green card interview is home in Minnesota after a judge ordered his release and found his constitutional rights were being violated in custody.

Judge Michael J. Davis ordered William Lizardo's release Sunday in response to a writ of habeas corpus. Davis concluded the 32-year-old was not a flight risk and that his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights were being violated while he was held in Sherburne County.

"It strains credulity to think that such a petitioner would flee," Davis wrote. He noted that Lizardo has appeared for every hearing for which he received notice, has never been involved with American law enforcement and kept U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informed of his address changes. Davis also cited Lizardo's family, his free dental services to Minnesota residents and more than a dozen letters of support in the record.

Davis wrote that USCIS "had no probable cause to believe Petitioner was in the country illegally." The agency's own files and communications with Lizardo showed he no longer lived at the address where the notice to appear and the order for removal were sent, Davis wrote in Sunday's order.

ICE detained Lizardo on Oct. 23 during a green card interview in Minneapolis. His family said it was only then that he learned he had been facing an immediate deportation order. In February, the government sent a notice to appear to a Virginia address that Lizardo and his wife hadn't lived at for more than two years, the family said. He had been working toward a green card after graduating from dental school at the University of Minnesota.

Lizardo hadn't seen the notice, and his lack of response led to the deportation order in March. Prior CBS News reporting found that an immigration court had already reopened the case, determining Lizardo had provided sufficient evidence that he never received notice.

Now that Lizardo is home, his attorney, Hassan Ahmad, said the next step is working to get his green card approved.

ICE has said Lizardo overstayed his lawful entry, which Ahmad has disputed, as of CBS News reporting Nov. 1. 

ICE is now declining to comment on the release and deferred to the Department of Homeland Security.

For the past year, Lizardo has been doing volunteer dental work at a clinic in Burnsville. He hopes to open a clinic in rural Minnesota with his wife, whom he met at dental school.

The featured video is from Nov. 1, before confirmation that he was freed.