Immigrant trucker freed after Wyoming judge rejects Homeland Security policy

A Wyoming judge has joined more than 300 federal judges in opposing the Trump administration’s policy of detaining nearly everyone brought to immigration proceedings, ordering a bond hearing for a detained immigrant truck driver who is now free while his case continues.

The case began Feb. 1 when Vazha Gelashvili, a New Jersey-based noncitizen and commercial truck driver, stopped at a Green River truck stop to shower. After noticing his vehicle’s mirror was broken, a truck stop attendant called the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office to investigate.

A deputy arrived and took Gelashvili into custody under a Wyoming law invalidating out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to “unauthorized aliens” without proof of lawful presence. He was soon transferred to ICE custody and taken to a federal facility in Colorado.

This happened about seven months after the Department of Homeland Security declared that noncitizens already living in the country aren’t eligible for bond during immigration proceedings—a departure from decades of practice granting established residents bond hearings.

U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled Feb. 26 that DHS’s new interpretation runs contrary to long-standing law. He quoted a Utah case noting that if judges are wrong, “a handful of immigrants” will be free on bond, but if DHS is wrong, “the agency will have unlawfully detained tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people.”

Gelashvili received a bond hearing and was released, his attorney Adam Boyd confirmed. “Someone who has a valid driver’s license and who has no criminal history does not meet that category” of being a danger or flight risk, Boyd said.

ICE responded that it “complies with all court orders” but emphasized that enforcing immigration law “is not optional and is essential to protecting America’s national security, public safety, and economic strength.”

This was Skavdahl’s second such ruling. In November, he ordered a bond hearing for a Mexican national who had been living in the U.S. for 20 years before his arrest in Idaho.