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April 24, 2014

This case seeks monetary damages for 324 days of wrongful detention due to an immigration detainer. Sergey Mayorov was born in Belarus and lawfully entered the United States at age 9 to live in the custody of his mother. Mr. Mayorov became a legal permanent resident on July 22, 2005 and two years later, in 2007, he derived citizenship through his mother when she naturalized.

In December 2010, Mr. Mayorov was arrested for residential burglary and pleaded guilty with the understanding that he would not have to serve a 4-year sentence if he completed a 120-day boot camp.  Mr. Mayorov entered boot camp in January 2011 and was successfully completing the program for two months, feeling he was making positive changes in his life. However, in March 2011, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an unlawful detainer against Mr. Mayorov, which disqualified him from boot camp.  ICE did not conduct a reasonable investigation prior to issuing the detainer, never interviewed Mr. Mayorov, or provide him with any mechanism to challenge the unlawful detainer.  ICE left Mr. Mayorov to languish in prison until he was able to reach the National Immigrant Justice Center in fall 2011.  Mr. Mayorov sought to intervene in NIJC’s on-going detainer class action Jimenez Moreno v. Napolitano. Upon seeking intervention, ICE immediately cancelled Mr. Mayorov’s detainer but took no action to alleviate the on-going harm of the detainer cause.  After advocacy from NIJC, Mr. Mayorov was finally reinstated in the 120-boot camp in February 2012 and successfully completed the program without incident in April 2012.

In 2013, NIJC filed a complaint in federal district court under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) seeking monetary damages for the 324-days Mr. Mayorov was wrongfully imprisoned due to the immigration detainer.  The case is currently in discovery.

Mr. Mayorov is represented by Mark Fleming of NIJC and Debra Bernard and Abiman Rajadurai of Perkins Coie LLP.