A native of Guatemala is seeking his release from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County contending his detention came about because of a recent change in policy by immigration officials that permits detention of individuals who have been present in the United States for years.

Fredy Rene Lopez Jimenez, 31, entered the United States on May 9, 2016, and has lived here ever since.

His petition, filed this week with the U.S. District Court in Johnstown, states that Jimenez “lived and worked in the U.S. without incident or any immigration enforcement involvement for over nine years, until ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) stopped and arrested him on his way to work on Feb. 23, 2026.”

The government alleges he had no documents required under the Immigration and Nationality Act and he has been charged as a person removable under the act.

According to the petition filed by attorney Brittany S. Pierce of Charlotte, N.C., Jimenez was just a guy living in Glassport Borough near Pittsburgh on his way to work when Glassport Borough Police stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation.

The police contacted ICE, which was in the area, for a records check and officers detained Jimenez and other occupants of the vehicle, noting “a perceived risk of flight.”

He was then taken to the Office of Enforcement and Removal and ended up being detained at Moshannon Valley.

It is alleged he “is an immigrant not in possession of a valid unexpired immigrant visa, reentry permit, border crossing card, passport or other travel or identity document required under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

The question placed before the federal court is whether his continued detention is legal.

According to the petition, the government must show that he is a flight risk, or a danger to society, to continue to detain him.

The petition claims that Jimenez is being held without due process of law and in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

And, it explains that his detention is based on a change in ICE policy.

Under an ICE memo officers are now “directed to treat virtually all noncitizens in the United States who have not been formally admitted, including those present for years (like Jimenez), as applicants for admission subject to mandatory detention under Immigration and Nationality Act,” the Jimenez petition explained.

The federal court in Johnstown has received hundreds of habeas corpus petitions, most from detainees at Moshannon Valley, beginning last November and continuing on a daily basis.

The petitioners are seeking release from detention, and the district judges hearing the cases, have ordered many bond hearings for the detainees.

Jimenez is arguing his Fifth Amendment right to due process has been violated in that he has been subjected to mandatory detention with no individualized hearing.

“As the Supreme Court has explained … freedom from imprisonment — from government custody, detention, or other forms of physical restraint — lies at the heart of the liberty that the Due Process Clause protects,” the Jimenez petition stated.

“To guarantee against arbitrary detention and to guarantee the right to liberty, due process requires adequate procedural protections that ensure the government’s asserted justification for a noncitizen’s physical confinement outweighs the individual’s constitutionally protected interest in avoiding physical restraint,” the petition concluded.

The petition is seeking Jimenez’s immediate release, or in the alternative, a bond hearing within seven days with the government bearing the burden of proving Jimenez is a flight risk or a danger to society.

U.S. District Judge William Stickman in Pittsburgh will hear the case.