Two brothers with a special immigration status for abused, abandoned or neglected unaccompanied minors must be released from a Virginia ICE detention facility, a judge has ruled.

The brothers, ages 19 and 20, came to the United States from El Salvador as minors. Their circumstances qualified them to apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a pathway to citizenship established forty years ago by Congress for vulnerable minors who entered the U.S. and were abused, abandoned or neglected.

In August, the brothers were picked up by an immigration patrol in Newport News. They have spent over two months at Farmville Detention Center.

A federal class action lawsuit, which names the brothers as plaintiffs, was filed by the ACLU of Virginia in the Eastern District of Virginia in September on

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