He is a Turkish citizen who entered the United States without authorization around September 2022, fleeing persecution tied to his Kurdish ethnicity and his membership in the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, and applied for asylum. He was released from ICE custody on his own recognizance in December 2022 and has since lived and worked in the U.S., most recently running a food truck in Moab, Utah, with an asylum hearing scheduled for 2028. ICE arrested him under a warrant in Moab on September 21, 2026, after lodging a detainer connected to a 2025 arrest in California that he says never led to any charges, and transferred him first to a detention center in Wyoming and later to one in San Diego. He filed a habeas petition challenging his detention. The court found he was being held under a provision of immigration law that allows release on bond, rather than mandatory border detention, and ordered officials to give him an individualized bond hearing within seven days or release him on a $1,500 bond.