Mohammed, a RAICES client from Yemen, traveled to the U.S. at the height of the pandemic, hoping for freedom and safety. But when he surrendered to border police and requested asylum, Mohammed was transferred to a federal prison.

Mohammed has since been in various forms of detention for 2.5 years precipitated initially by failing to identify himself upon entry — a rare federal charge that has been systematically leveraged to target asylum seekers from Muslim-majority countries.

The U.S. likely targeted Mohammed for being an Arab Muslim and imprisoned him solely for the act of seeking political asylum.

We need hundreds of people to send letters to the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, to release Mohammed from immigration detention.

It is time for the Department of Homeland Security to use its discretionary power to release Mohammed from immigration detention.