Federal judge orders immediate release of Memphis high school student detained by ICE

“Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Yasser Jose Lopez Soza has spent his weeks in the West Tennessee Detention Center working seven-hour kitchen shifts to stay busy. The 18-year-old Memphis high school student has been held in ICE detention since his arrest on Feb. 20 on the way to a school soccer game. He said he misses his mom and friends and wishes he were back in his classes at Memphis Business Academy. “I feel like I’m dying of loneliness, nostalgia and sadness,” Lopez Soza wrote in Spanish in an April 9 letter to Chalkbeat. “School was my happy place where I spent the majority of my time. I miss my teachers and my friends.” On April 23, a federal judge ordered Lopez Soza’s immediate release from the detention center. According to the court decision, detaining the high school junior without bond violated his rights to due process. Mauricio Calvo, director of Latino Memphis who has worked closely with Lopez Soza’s case, said the detention center hadn’t released him as of 11 a.m. April 24 because of paperwork issues. Lopez Soza was in the car with teammates on the way to a soccer game on Feb. 20, his lawyer told Chalkbeat, when the driver was pulled over. Details of that arrest, including why the car was pulled over, are still unclear even to the judge reviewing the habeas petition, according to the court document. Jay Fearnley, the teenager’s lawyer, filed a petition for habeas corpus on March 11. The Department of Homeland Security argued Lopez Soza can be held without bond because he is considered “an ‘applicant for admission’ who is treated, for constitutional purposes, as if stopped at the border,” the court document says. But that’s based on a recent ICE policy decision, not the “plain text” of the law, the judge says. Lopez Soza has been living in Memphis for three years, since arriving from Nicaragua in December 2022. The then-15-year-old and his mother arrived in Arizona without documentation and were briefly detained, the court decision says. In June 2025, he and his mom were ordered to be deported for failing to appear in immigration court. But in August, a judge dismissed that order and reopened his immigration case. Lopez Soza is expected to graduate from Memphis Business Academy in May 2027. According to the court, that means he isn’t considered an applicant for admission under existing law. And with no existing criminal history, he cannot be denied a bond hearing, according to the Thursday court ruling. “Bond hearings were designed to prevent prolonged detention during removal proceedings, which are often lengthy,” the decision says. “Therefore, denying Lopez Soza the chance to obtain relief simply because he did not file an appeal may force him ‘to endure six months or more of potentially unlawful detention and thus would cause him great hardship.’” Lopez Soza misses schoolwork, peers in ICE detention During his once-a-week visiting hour on April 18, Lopez Soza sat at a table in a crowded room with Memphis Democrat Representative Gabby Salinas and a Memphis Business Academy teacher. Lopez Soza spoke quietly, his hands often covering his mouth, about missing his girlfriend and how expensive it is to call his mom every night. It costs 5 cents per minute, he said, and 35 cents for an international call to his sister in Nicaragua. Lopez Soza makes $3 per shift working in the detention center kitchen. Other than that, he spends his time drawing and listening to Radiohead on a tablet that also costs 5 cents per minute to use. “Sometimes you have to sleep a lot, because there aren’t many things to do here,” he wrote in the April 9 letter. Salinas said she hasn’t been able to bring Lopez Soza any schoolwork in the detention center. During the Saturday visit, he said he’s worried about missing ACT and SAT testing. He needs those scores to apply for college next year. Lopez Soza said he wants to play soccer at his future university, and talked excitedly about seeing a recent game on TV at the detention center. Real Madrid, he says, is the best team. “I hope my life can change, and I can get out of here,” he wrote on April 9. “I hope God helps me get out of here very soon.” Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

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