When ICE detention drags on, the remedy is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 — and speed is the practice: the petition must reach the district of confinement before a transfer moves the case somewhere worse. Lexfill runs the whole pipeline: a guided detention intake a family member can complete, an evidence-backed detention analysis, a drafted petition, and the complete court filing package.
1. Petitioner has been detained for approximately fourteen months without an individualized bond hearing…
2. The Third Circuit recognizes a due-process limit on prolonged mandatory detention. German Santos v. Warden Pike Cnty., 965 F.3d 203 (3d Cir. 2020)…
Lex drafts it from the intake record — you review, sign, and file.
Detention habeas work is won on speed and venue: the petition has to be filed in the district of confinement before ICE moves your client. Lexfill collects the custody facts once — from whoever can answer them, since your client cannot — and builds every document from that record.
The intake is written for the people who can actually answer it — your staff, or a family member you invite with a link. Plain questions cover where the client is held, every period in custody, the immigration case's posture, each bond request and its outcome, and the medical and family circumstances that give the facts weight. Claims screening and venue stay on the attorney's worksheet; the family never sees them.
The custody paperwork proves the detention the petition challenges, and the bond and custody-review record proves what has already been tried. Lexfill's checklist collects both — the I-286 or book-in record, bond decisions, custody-review responses, and travel-document correspondence — identified, verified, and bound into the package as exhibits.
Lexfill grades the detention first — the statutory authority it runs under, the clocks that govern it, and how the circuit has ruled — so you commit to filing with an evidence-backed verdict. Then it drafts the petition and fills the court forms from the same record, down to the verification block.
A habeas case turns on facts that are easy to get wrong under time pressure: which statute the detention actually runs under, when the clock really started, and who the right respondents are. Lexfill cross-checks the record before you file — and where the record and the attorney's read disagree, it says so instead of picking a side silently.
A petition asking a federal district court to review the lawfulness of immigration detention itself — not the underlying immigration case. The relief sought is release or a bond hearing, typically where mandatory detention has run on for many months without one, or where detention continues past the six-month presumptive period after a final removal order with no removal reasonably foreseeable.
Lexfill's habeas case type screens the common patterns: prolonged mandatory detention without a bond hearing, post-removal-order detention where removal is not reasonably foreseeable — including withholding-only cases — and bond-process defects, such as a judge declining to consider bond at all. The analysis identifies which statute the detention runs under and grades the claim accordingly.
Because the petition must be filed in the federal district where the client is confined, and ICE can transfer a detainee to a distant facility on short notice. Jurisdiction attaches at filing — a transfer after filing does not defeat the case, but a transfer before filing means starting over somewhere else. The practice is built around filing in days, not weeks.
Whoever can: the attorney or their staff fill it directly, or the firm invites a family member with a standard intake link. The client-facing sections are written in plain language a family member can answer — facility, custody history, bond requests, health and family circumstances — while claims screening and venue stay on the attorney worksheet.
The drafted petition with its verification block, the JS-44 civil cover sheet with the Alien Detainee nature-of-suit, an AO 440 summons for each respondent, the certified-mail service set for the U.S. Attorney, the Attorney General, and the respondents, an application for an order to show cause when you request one — it asks the court to set a fast response deadline — Rule 41 dismissal drafts held in reserve, filing instructions with the $5 habeas filing fee, and the custody and bond exhibits.
No. Lexfill prepares the record and the drafts — the detention analysis, the petition, and the filing package. The attorney reviews every document, decides whether to file, signs, and files.
Yes. Lexfill integrates with Clio directly: connect your account, import your contacts and matters in a click, and push completed work back to Clio when you're done. On a different vendor? We'll do your migration for free — our team moves your clients and matters into Lexfill for you, usually within a few days.
The same guided intake, document intelligence, and review flags — tuned to each case type you handle.
Create your firm workspace, send the detention intake to whoever can answer it, and review a drafted § 2241 petition with its filing package the same day.