Cristofer-Ortega Varela spent about a year at the Strafford County Jail, waiting, as his petition challenging the legality of his detention worked its way through the New Hampshire U.S. District Court.
But he says he never had the chance to stand in front of a judge.
“I never had court. So I literally waited all that time,” he said. “You don't really see the world the same after you get out of a place like that. You really just come out of a place like that completely different, you have a different perception of people.”
Immigration officers had stopped Ortega-Varela while he was driving through Manchester in early 2025. He was deported in April, and his case was eventually dismissed.
Ortega-Varela’s habeas corpus petition, is one among more than 200 that have been filed in New Hampshire U.S. District Court this past year.
New Hampshire, like the rest of the country, has seen these filings skyrocket as the Trump administration detains more immigrants but immigration courts hold fewer bond hearings.
The sheer number of filings can put a strain on detainees, attorneys and the courts. These habeas corpus petitions made up just 1% of cases in New Hampshire's federal district court in 2024, but made up 27% of cases in May, as lawyers and detainees try to use them to get a bond hearing.
For Ortega-Varela, a 21-year-old from Honduras, his habeas petition didn’t result in his release. He had an open deportation order from when he was a kid and moved to U.S. with his mom. Despite a clean record and path to citizenship through his Special Immigrant Juvenile status, he was not given a bond hearing. His petition was dismissed as moot when he was deported to Honduras.
Now, he’s living with relatives and trying to stay positive as he tries to get his papers in order, get his phone back and find a job in Honduras while he figures out a way to get back to his New Jersey home. Despite the outcome, Ortega-Varela said he’s grateful for his lawyers.
“I really appreciate everything they did for me because these people really work hard,” he said. “They empower you to fight. The reason why the habeas corpus was filed was because they fought for me and they wouldn’t give up on me.”
'A huge burden on the system'
On the other side, lawyers say filing these petitions is a way for detainees to get due process, but they add pressure to high caseloads.
In Brandon Ladebush's case, these petitions account for most of his work. The Dover-based immigration lawyer estimates he’s filed between 30 and 40 habeas cases this year.
“I think there's just overall and over a huge burden on the system that's causing immense stress for the immigrants, for the attorneys, for the judges – across the board,” Ladebush said. “I think it's an unfortunate effect of what's going on right now as well because it's causing a lot of stress, a lot of heartache.”
The New Hampshire U.S. District Court declined a request for comment from NHPR on the impact of the increased caseload.
In most of the habeas petitions filed in New Hampshire, the central question is whether the immigration enforcement system is following due process and giving detainees the chance to be released on bond.
Several ongoing legal battles dispute decisions made by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2025 that limit who is eligible for bond after detention – especially immigrants who entered without permission, immigrants who were arrested by Border Patrol and then released into the country and immigrants who were granted parole.
Several judges have ruled that these groups are eligible for bond, but Ladebush says that this hasn’t been reflected in practice.
“We've seen a whole wide array of cases come down through our Board of Immigration Appeals that have basically stripped away the right of individuals present in the United States to seek a bond hearing just directly with the court,” Ladebush said. “These people are eligible for bond, but the immigration courts are not following it. So it's necessitated a large amount of these cases to still be filed in federal court.”
In New Hampshire, judges are granting most habeas petitions – primarily when the petitioner is asking for bond. But several cases have been dismissed or withdrawn when the petitioner received a bond hearing before the judge got a chance to make an order.
Despite the likelihood of a federal judge ordering an immigration judge to hold a bond hearing, this doesn’t automatically mean that the detainee is released. There have only been a handful of cases filed in New Hampshire where a granted habeas corpus petition results in an automatic release, but it’s far more common for there to be complications in the process.
Even if a detainee gets a bond hearing through a habeas petition, it’s possible the detainee is denied a bond by the immigration judge, or it is set very high. On average, bond is set at $7,500, but has been as low as $2,000 and as high as $15,000 this year.
