annual report<\/a>, received nearly half its revenue from ICE last year.<\/p>\nHerman says he crossed into the U.S. legally 20 years ago through a U.S. port of entry and then he overstayed his visa, which makes him an illegal immigrant.<\/p>\n
Kaufman found the previous immigration judge \u201cabused its discretion\u201d in deeming Herman a flight risk based on allegations that he violated his supervision. Herman denies this, and the only evidence submitted wasn\u2019t \u201cclear and convincing,\u201d Kaufman said in his decision.<\/p>\n
The evidence accepted by the immigration judge was a U.S. Department of Homeland Security form that noted Herman had accrued 18 violations, \u201cbut it does not list the type or date of the violations, or provide any other information about how petitioner allegedly violated his conditions,\u201d read the order.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Herman repeatedly tried while detained to get information about the violations he was accused of, but was unsuccessful. After multiple rounds of immigration court hearings, he represented himself in filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus \u2014 a legal mechanism that allows people who have been detained to challenge their imprisonment in court \u2014 in April 2026. <\/p>\n
The court appointed him a lawyer and the case went to trial court. The government did eventually provide more info on the alleged violations in their answer to the habeas proceeding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt thus appears that ICE had this information readily available and simply declined to produce it for petitioner\u2019s bond hearing, forcing petitioner to speculate about what violations he might have committed and depriving him of a meaningful opportunity to contest the allegations against him,\u201d the order read.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Craig Durham, Herman\u2019s lawyer, said many immigrants like Herman are unlawfully detained without due process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is someone who should never be in detention regardless of whether ultimately his immigration case is successful or not. He doesn’t need to be housed like a common criminal in horrible conditions while that process is going on,\u201d Durham said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Glitchy’ monitoring device blamed for alleged violations<\/p>\n
The device and monitoring are provided by BI Electronic Monitoring and Supervision Services, a subsidiary of the Geo Group \u2014 the company that owns the Adelanto detention centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s just a horrible way to run an imprisonment system because there’s incentives, obviously, to have more people detained,\u201d Durham said.<\/p>\n
Herman has volunteered to wear a GPS ankle monitor or have other release conditions instead of the VeriWatch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the court left the Department of Homeland Security to decide on Herman\u2019s release conditions, it ordered that a VeriWatch can\u2019t be one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the evidence presented here, it is clear that the VeriWatch technology is not an appropriate condition of supervision for (Herman),\u201d read the decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While detained, Herman said he used his experience representing himself in immigration court to help other detainees contest their detention orders. He wants to continue this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some people’s habeas corpus applications and have gone through and some people are now free,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now that he\u2019s won his release, he said he hopes his case sets a precedent others detained after alleged monitoring device issues can cite in their legal fights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Representing yourself from within a detention centre is challenging as there\u2019s limited access to legal materials, he said. But he said he\u2019s shared his phone number with friends still detained, so he can be a link to any information they need on the outside.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781696722_153_default.jpg\")
Herman teared up when describing seeing his cats \u2014 Poquito, left, and Butters, right \u2014 for the first time in seven months. (Robert Shepyer\/Ojai Valley News)<\/p>\n
On Monday, Herman returned to his home in Ojai and reunited with his two orange cats, Butters and Poquito. They are one of his last connections with his late partner, who died in 2021, he says.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t know how long this homecoming will last. While his detention hearings are over, his immigration case is before the courts to decide whether he will ultimately be allowed to stay in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Herman still has to check in with ICE frequently, and worries he could be detained again. But he feels he has unfinished business in the U.S. \u2014 helping other detainees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m kind of committed to a battle and morally I have to see it to its end or however far my end will be in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“Witnessing an enduring injustice just burns fire in you.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly 250 days in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, Winnipeg-born Clayton Herman walked free on Monday.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-742655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781696721_483_default.jpg\")
Herman said walking out of Adelanto ICE Detention Centre after being detained for over seven months felt surreal. (Robert Shepyer\/Ojai Valley News)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781696721_919_default.jpg\")
An officer stands outside the Adelanto ICE Processing Centre, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Adelanto, Calif. (Jill Connelly\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n