A man who fled an uprising in the Middle East decades ago, and whose son serves in the U.S. Air Force, was taken into custody during a routine immigration appointment in Des Moines, Iowa.

Another man brought to the country as a child in 1999, who now has a U.S.-born child, was arrested after a minor traffic stop in southwest Missouri.

And a man from El Salvador with no criminal record spent weeks in a Nebraska prison that had been converted to hold immigrants fighting to stay in the country.

In each of these cases, a federal judge ruled that their confinement, detailed in what’s called a habeas corpus petition, violated their rights and they were released.

As President Donald Trump’s administration dramatically expanded who was subject to mandatory detention, more than 45,000 habeas corpus cases have flooded federal courts across the country. Petitioners have alleged that their detention was illegal and asked to be returned to their families so they can continue their civil immigration cases from home. An analysis by The Marshall Project and The Midwest Newsroom found that habeas corpus filings in four Midwestern states have been overwhelmingly successful thus far.

In Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, more than 450 cases have been filed since Trump’s inauguration last year. The vast majority of people in the roughly 160 cases that had been resolved through mid-April were granted a hearing to determine if they could be let out of detention on bond, or in some cases, were released outright.

“It’s actually really remarkable,” said Suchita Mathur, an attorney with the American Immigration Council, a D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for immigrants. “I’ve never heard or seen any legal issue with this much consensus among district court judges.”

But as the Trump administration files appeals to attempt to narrow the discretion of judges in habeas corpus cases about immigration, the legal landscape is in flux.

Habeas outcomes

The legal concept of habeas corpus dates back over 800 years to the Magna Carta in England. For centuries, people in prison have used it to challenge confinement. Today, petitioners in civil immigration cases have used the legal mechanism to fight the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy. Noncitizens have argued they should be released because of prolonged detention, a lack of access to bond hearings or inhumane conditions in the facilities where they are held.

We reviewed nearly 160 case filings in the four states covered by The Midwest Newsroom, but are not naming the immigrants who filed the petitions because nearly all of them still have immigration claims pending, and many expressed a fear of retaliation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Trump administration has justified its large-scale arrests and mass raids on immigrant communities in several major cities by saying it is targeting the worst of the worst, but a review of the filings in habeas corpus cases undercuts those claims. Among the people held in ICE detention in these Midwestern states were people with pending asylum cases, no criminal history and parents of U.S.-born children.

The Department of Homeland Security, for example, recently contended in court documents that a man from Spain should be subject to mandatory detention and then deportation. He filed a habeas corpus petition while he was being held in the Cass County jail south of Omaha, Nebraska, after being arrested in January during ICE’s Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.

In 2022, under the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security had granted the man permission to stay in the U.S. because he was a minor who had suffered physical and emotional abuse by a parent.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) — Recent rainfall across Nebraska may not have done enough to alleviate the state’s persistent drought, with many areas that needed moisture most receiving insufficient amounts.

The southeast region received the most rain over the past few days, where conditions are abnormally dry or in moderate drought.

The southern panhandle, where conditions are most severe, received minimal rainfall.

Last Thursday’s drought monitor showed exceptional drought in portions of the panhandle, including Morrill and Garden counties, where nearly 1 million acres burned in February.

Two-thirds of the state was in extreme drought, according to the map released last Thursday.

“Conditions are probably about as bad as a dust bowl. The map that was released last Thursday shows that two-thirds of the state were in extreme drought, which basically means that if you combine factors, that’s the worst 5% we’ve ever seen,” said Dr. Eric Hunt, a climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Hunt said it would take multiple good rains in a row with cooler temperatures over the span of a month to pull some areas out of their drought conditions.

Pasture conditions around the state are poor, with only 4% considered very good to excellent—dead last in the nation.

“Some of the northern panhandle and northeast Nebraska did okay, but there’s large sections of north central and northeastern Nebraska that did not pick up as much. And the southern panhandle generally got the shaft yet again,” Hunt said.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s drought monitor will update again Thursday morning. It will give scientists a better idea of how much this weekend’s storms made a difference in the state’s drought.

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BRADY, Nebraska – In the Sandhills of Nebraska, some grazing pastures look more like the Sahara Desert. The Morrill Fire — the largest wildfire in Nebraska history — scorched vast stretches of land in mid-March.

Farmers and ranchers across western Nebraska are now trying to recover, but severe drought conditions are making matters worse.

“The wind was screaming, maybe 70 mph. They said in 10 minutes it traveled 14 miles,” said Joe Van Newkirk, owner of Van Newkirk Herefords Ranch. “We heard that there was a fire in Angora, which is about 50 miles north-west of our headquarters, we just kind of looked at the map and there was just no way that this place was not going to get burned.”  

The ranch, located in Oshkosh, Nebraska, has been in the Van Newkirk family for 140 years. The operation holds an annual bull sale, selling 250 to 300 bulls to ranches across the country.

Thankfully, the Van Newkirk home was spared. It sits miles away from grazing pastures that are now almost unrecognizable after the fire.

“We didn’t have any cattle on here, or any buildings to speak of. So we were very lucky in that respect,” said Van Newkirk. Around a third of his summer range burned in the fire. 

LARGEST WILDFIRE IN NEBRASKA HISTORY LEAVES 1 DEAD, SCORCHES OVER 640,000 ACRES AS CONDITIONS BEGIN TO EASE

There is still extensive cleanup work ahead. Livestock watering tanks are now completely filled with sand.

“We could probably come up here and shovel them out but who says it’s not going to blow right back in,” said Van Newkirk. “We’re gonna let this country heal, let the wind go down. Maybe next spring, winter, we’ll come up here and fix this stuff.” 

While surveying the ranch, Van Newkirk said he recently noticed the first signs of improvement since the fires erupted in March.

“This fire was the 13th, 14th of March, and by the 1st of May, it didn’t look a whole lot different up here. The grass hadn’t started,” he said. “But just since then, four or five days, it’s made a difference. We haven’t received any moisture to speak of.”

The Morill fire burned 642,029 acres, according to NOAA. Severe drought conditions are compounding the damage. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows more than 90% of Nebraska is experiencing drought, with growing portions of the state classified under severe, extreme and exceptional drought conditions.

But the Morrill Fire was not the only wildfire burning in Nebraska at the time.

“It burned down the shop, and my corrals, and all the hay in my yard ended up going,” said Owen Johnson, Operator of Bearded Lady LLC. 

The Cottonwood Fire also tore through Nebraska, scorching 129,253 acres. The blaze hit Bearded Lady Ranch in Brady, Nebraska, which raises registered quarter horses.

“I have a dozer at the house, and I tried to bulldoze a fire break on the north and west sides of the house,” Johnson said. “So that, essentially, once the fire hit that line, my hope was that it would save at least the house, the buildings around the house, the farmstead.”

“I actually dozed about 120 or 130 feet, but the wind was just too strong. It actually jumped that bare ground and burned up to the house,” he added.

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Although his home survived, Johnson said the ranch still faces major challenges.

“I know I need to rebuild my shop, so that I have somewhere to put the stuff that I need to make it through the days. But we just haven’t got any rain,” Johnson said. “We don’t have any fences. All my horses are in dry lots, which is not typically how I do things.”

Johnson also said he has noticed behavioral and reproductive changes in his horses since the fires and drought.

“I don’t know if it’s from the drought or the stress, but usually after they foal, they have a pretty routine cycle for when they come back into heat,” Johnson said. “You can start breeding those mares back again, and my mares just aren’t coming into heat.”

“So now you’re sitting here going, man, when are we gonna get the fencing done, and when’s it gonna rain? And even if everything else happens, if we don’t get mares to where they’re going to have us foals for next year, how are we going to make it through the next year?” he added.

Despite the hardship, Johnson said volunteers and donations from across the country have helped keep the ranch operating.

“The outreach from people, it almost gives you a different view of society,” Johnson said. “There were people coming from all over the United States.”

“There was hay from Georgia and Wisconsin, and I don’t even know all the states, but there were literally people driving 12 or 13 hours to bring hay out — not just to us, but to other neighbors and other people that were affected by the fires,” he added.

THE SINGLE CRUSHING PROBLEM AMERICAN CATTLE RANCHERS WISH TRUMP WOULD FIX INSTEAD

Van Newkirk shared a similar sentiment about the support pouring into ranch country.

“You know, that’s where that really chokes me up, all the outpouring of people nationwide to help this cattle community. It’s a tight-knit community, our hometown,” said Van Newkirk. “The day of the fire, our fire department looked like a commissary. I mean there was just so much food, Gatorade, palettes of water. There was a bushel basket full of chapstick for these firemen.”

But both ranchers said recovery ultimately depends on rainfall.

“It’s just miles upon miles of drought and it’s affecting everybody. I would feel pretty confident to say there’s not very many farmers or ranchers right now that don’t have some sort of stress or concerns about the lack of precipe,” said Johnson. 

“This country’s dry, and we could use all the prayers that you could have us,” said Van Newkirk.  

Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen has requested that President Donald Trump issue a major disaster declaration related to the wildfires. The funding would assist with covering the cost of damage to public infrastructure.

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Pillen said in a statement, “”As Nebraska faced historic wildfires, the people of our state came together to jumpstart the recovery process. I’m submitting my request for a disaster declaration to the White House and FEMA. We appreciate President Trump’s attention to this matter and his long-standing support of our state when we have requested disaster recovery funding.”

There are currently several relief funds and GoFundMe pages to help those impacted stay afloat.