About this episode

Published July 29th, 2026, 07:04 pm

A pending asylum application was never a legal status. But for decades, filing one within your first year — as the law requires — meant immigration agents largely left you alone while you waited. That's changed.

Attorney Kevin Piecuch runs a free legal clinic in Southwest Detroit. He tells Robyn Vincent that people with pending cases are now being picked up at their homes and their jobs. Robyn also speaks with a young woman detained while her case was still pending — we're not using her real name — and with Pastor Kevin Casillas of the First Latin American Baptist Church.

We asked ICE's Detroit field office to respond. It has not yet done so.

Have thoughts? Email the show: metro@wdet.org

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The Metro

Doing everything right, and detained anyway

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47m