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CNN: ‘Are Mom and Dad not coming home?’: American kids left stranded when ICE takes their parents

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All they knew was that their mother, their only parent since their father died five years ago, was being taken from them.

Across the country, US-born children like Febe and Angelo have become collateral damage in the Trump administration’s unprecedented crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

CNN identified more than 100 US citizen children, from newborns to teenagers, who have been left stranded without parents because of immigration actions this year, according to a review of verified crowdfunding campaigns, public records and interviews with families, friends, immigration attorneys and other advocates.

These cases have unfolded as the Trump administration has abandoned the “humane enforcement” of immigration laws when deporting mothers and fathers who entered the country illegally, according to policy documents.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, American children across the country have ended up in the care of relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers and even strangers. Their parents were picked up during raids on workplaces ranging from farms to meatpacking plants, coming out of check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or dropping their kids off at school.

In some cases, ICE appears to have violated protections that still remain in official policies by failing to allow undocumented parents time to find an appropriate caregiver or to make travel plans for their children as they are taken into custody and deported, CNN found. Unlike immigrant children, American children of immigrants do not fall within ICE’s jurisdiction and are not tracked by the agency.

An ICE spokesperson did not provide any data on how many cases the agency is aware of where US citizen children have been separated from their parents and would not comment on the removal of “humane” from official ICE policies. The spokesperson claimed that ICE “goes out of its way” to give parents the opportunity to designate a guardian or have their children accompany them upon removal.

“CNN is trying to obscure the fact that each of the illegal alien parents they are defending willingly chose to break our nation’s criminal and administrative laws and as a result of those choices, are responsible for what happens to their children – just as any U.S. citizen parent who breaks the law is when they are taken to jail,” the spokesperson said.

Accounts gathered by CNN included an autistic 11-year-old who was placed in foster care in Nebraska when her father was picked up by ICE in June, and a 10-month-old left with family friends when her single mother was arrested during a workplace raid at a cannabis farm in Southern California in July. In Michigan, the oldest daughter of four reportedly scrapped plans to attend college in the fall so she could raise her three younger siblings after their widowed father was detained.

“It’s literally a kid’s worst nightmare having someone come take your parents in the middle of the night,” said Wendy Cervantes, a longtime immigration policy expert who has worked with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to help craft federal policies that protect the children of immigrants. “No matter the outcome, you are turning a kid’s life upside down.”

‘Children at risk’

Federal agents donned riot gear and lobbed flash bang grenades and smoke bombs at protesters as they raided a pair of cannabis farms near the California coast this summer. When the smoke cleared, multiple employees were left injured and a worker fleeing one of the facilities plummeted 30 feet from the roof of a greenhouse to his death.

The raids made headlines for the chaotic and deadly scene that unfolded, as well as reports that a protestor fired at ICE agents.

What went largely unnoticed was just how many US citizen children — more than a dozen, according to CNN’s analysis — were left without parents to care for them.

One 15-year-old ended up on his own with his two younger brothers, 8 and 9, when his mother was arrested, her immigration attorney told CNN. From detention, the mother had told the attorney she wanted to see her children as soon as possible. But she was deported to Mexico only three days after the raid.

Martita Martinez-Bravo and her small nonprofit organization, Friends of Fieldworkers, have been attempting to fill in some of the gaps — gathering donations and delivering diapers, formula, clothes and toys to those in need. Since the raids, which swept up more than 300 undocumented workers, Martinez-Bravo’s phone constantly rings. Many families contacting her have had their primary or sole income-earner ripped away, leaving the remaining parent without a way to pay rent and other bills.

She said some of the most alarming calls have come from people who are now unexpectedly caring for children. She recalled one call about a babysitter who showed up to one of the farms with two babies in her arms the morning after the raid. Their parents had never come home, Martinez-Bravo said she was told.

“There is no government support, so all the support that is happening is from nonprofit groups and families,” said Martinez-Bravo. “It’s leaving children at risk.”

Martinez-Bravo wore a cheerful, embroidered red blouse on a Friday afternoon last month when she dropped off a large Target bag full of supplies — including toothbrushes, toothpaste and Lysol wipes — at a one-bedroom apartment where seven people had been living for more than a month.

The apartment had been tight when it was just a family of four living there – two farmworkers and their two children. But then the couple took in three more children – their niece and two nephews – when those kids’ parents were detained and quickly deported.

The aunt and uncle struggled to pay for food and rent, and their landlord told them too many people were living in the small apartment. The stress had become so great that the aunt — who is also undocumented — kept getting headaches. Just the week prior, she ended up in the hospital, she said.

When she could no longer afford a babysitter for the youngest of the children, she said, a family friend drove the 2-year-old boy — a US citizen — across the border to live with his father in Tijuana, Mexico. The father said he had come to the United States days after he found his own father shot dead in his house in Mexico. He said he and his son are now sharing a room with a roommate while his wife stays with her family thousands of miles away. He found a job on a farm and works six days a week, but nets less than $20 a day. After paying for child care, it’s a struggle to afford food and diapers, he said.

Back in California, the aunt says she worries about being separated from her own children, a teenager and 4-year-old, who were both born in the US and are citizens. She wants a better future for them, one where they don’t come home from long days picking produce, caked in mud like her and their father.

“Now I feel sad for everything happening,” she said in Spanish. “What happens if ICE takes me?”

A new kind of family separation

Previous immigration crackdowns had primarily focused on immigrants who had violent criminal records or were recent arrivals.

But now, as immigration agents scramble to meet the Trump administration’s aggressive quotas of 3,000 arrests a day, many immigrants who have lived in the country a decade or longer with no criminal records are being arrested, detained and deported — often within a matter of weeks or even days.

Many parents in the cases CNN identified had dutifully attended immigration appointments, paid taxes and received work permits and other authorization to remain in the country, according to interviews and records from parents, families and attorneys.

In prior policy documents, ICE noted that there were “limited circumstances in which detention is appropriate” for parents. While it was not unheard of under past administrations for immigrant parents to end up deported, ICE has historically given agents “discretion” to prevent children from being separated from their sole caregivers.

ICE has taken a different approach under Trump’s second term. The administration’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has repeatedly said parents are to blame for entering the country illegally and having children here without being documented. “If (you’re) in the country illegally and you choose to have a US citizen child, that’s on you,” Homan told Politico in July. “If we want to send a message to the whole world … go have a US citizen child and you’re immune … we’re never going to solve this problem.”

ICE echoed this in its statement to CNN, saying that even if an undocumented immigrant attends immigration appointments, pays taxes or receives authorization to work in the US, they “are not absolved of their original offense of illegally entering the country.”

The agency’s “Detained Parents Directive,” meanwhile, has been changed to weaken protections for undocumented parents, most notably removing a written commitment to pursue “humane enforcement” of deportation laws. Instead, the guidance states that agents should “remain cognizant of the impact enforcement actions may have on a minor child.”

The administration’s updated policy still provides that undocumented parents should be given time to find an appropriate caregiver or to make travel plans for their children. Yet, some detained parents have alleged they were not given such accommodations, according to immigration attorneys and accounts detailed in interviews and online fundraisers.

In one case, a young girl was placed in foster care despite having family members who were willing to care for her, according to a nonprofit. In others, parents were deported so quickly that there wasn’t enough time for them to secure passports for their children to be able to join them.

“This ICE is not using their discretion,” said Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center. “The checks and balances that used to exist are gone.”

In Honduras and Guatemala — two countries many undocumented immigrants are being deported to — parents are arriving without their US citizen children and saying they weren’t given the option to bring them, researchers from the nonprofit advocacy group Women’s Refugee Commission said after visiting both places.

“Some parents were showing up inconsolable because they did not know where their children were or who was caring for them,” said Zain Lakhani, the group’s director of migrant rights and justice. “This is the new family separation crisis.”

In its statement, ICE said parents are given the opportunity to designate a guardian to care for their children or to have their children accompany them when they are deported. “That decision is entirely up to the illegal alien parents, and they are given a reasonable amount of time to make that decision,” the spokesperson said.

Citing the increasing likelihood that undocumented parents could end up in ICE custody, nonprofits have been holding community workshops to help parents consider their options, such as designating guardians for their children in the event they are separated. Lawmakers in several states have also recently introduced legislation to make it easier for parents to designate appropriate caregivers if they are taken.

“We are witnessing families being torn apart in real time — parents detained, unable to pick up their children from school and childcare,” Democratic California Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez said in a statement about legislation that is currently awaiting the governor’s signature. “This bill is not just about planning; it’s about creating a safety net.”

Lasting trauma

Mimi Lettunich was in the middle of work when she received a call from an immigration agent asking her whether she could pick up her friend Jackie Merlos’ four children. Merlos was being detained, and if she didn’t immediately find a US citizen to take her kids, they would end up in foster care.

Within hours, Lettunich found herself driving along the highway with 9-year-old triplets and their 7-year-old brother to care for indefinitely.

The children sat stunned in the back seat. Lettunich herself was trying to wrap her mind around what was happening, she told CNN. She couldn’t understand why immigration authorities would take away Merlos and her husband, well-regarded local business owners who had come to Portland, Oregon, from Honduras decades ago.

Lettunich hadn’t cared for young children in years — her own kids were now grown up. And she had a full-time job. As they drove to her Portland home, she realized she and her husband hadn’t even started to think about what they needed or how this was all going to work: Did they have toothbrushes? Where were they going to sleep? What were they going to have for dinner? How do we make sure they feel comfortable but also give them their space?

That first night at Lettunich’s, the children slept in their clothes because they didn’t have pajamas. She comforted them before bed, telling them they were safe and reading them stories. She told them they could think of this as “summer camp,” and the kids now call it “Camp Reindeer” because of how many deer they see in the backyard. In the days and then weeks that have followed, she and her husband have taken the kids swimming, to the zoo and out to dinner — anything to try to cheer them up. Because they have had to keep working too, they enrolled the children in day camps, and they often visit their parents in detention on the weekends.

But Lettunich said she worries every day about the impacts that they will be coping with for the rest of their lives because of the ordeal. “They fear for their parents,” she said. “They ask, ‘are Mom and Dad not coming home?’”

One of the kids has been keeping everything bottled up, she said. He doesn’t want to hear anything about what happened or talk about it, only wanting to “think of happy things.” And all of the children have started talking with a psychiatrist to try to begin processing the trauma, she said.

Less than three hours away in her cell at an ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington, their mother, Jackie Merlos, is grappling with her own emotions, writing regular journal entries about her experience and her worries. US Customs and Border Protection, which initially detained Merlos and her husband, told CNN she was arrested “as she attempted to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States” and that formal removal proceedings were underway. Neither Merlos nor her husband has been charged with a crime related to this allegation, however, and Merlos has said she and her family were simply meeting her sister — a Canadian resident — at a park along the US-Canada border. ICE did not comment.

It has been more than 70 days since Merlos was separated from her kids, and her next court date isn’t until the middle of October.

“I feel powerless not being able to see or hug my children, play with them, and watch them grow,” she wrote a week after her children were separated from her. “I’m suffering, and my children are suffering psychologically. It’s not fair to separate children from their mom and dad.”

Sometimes Merlos convinces herself that what is happening is just a nightmare that she will wake up from. “My life feels meaningless without them,” she wrote.

But until the whole family is reunited, she urged her children to keep praying and to continue living their lives without her.

“Please don’t stop practicing your piano (David), guitar (Carlitos), violin (Abigail), and piano (Caleb),” Merlos wrote.

An untracked issue

Pleas for donations to help stranded children have been popping up online since immigration efforts ramped up earlier this year.

In some cases, the children themselves are asking for financial support to help pay for food, rent and utility bills. Teenagers describe being left on their own with younger siblings, and recent high school graduates say they have dropped out of college and returned home in the hopes of keeping their siblings housed, fed and out of the care of strangers.

“My mother is the most hard working woman I know, she is a single mother of 3 and has worked for us to always have everything we need and everything she’s had worked for her whole life was just taken away from her,” a daughter wrote in a July fundraiser. “Truly anything helps.”

Because the number of kids left behind by the ongoing ICE raids and deportation efforts is not being publicly tracked, CNN used the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe as a way to provide a snapshot of the issue, as well as interviews with families and attorneys, who confirmed additional cases to reporters. CNN’s count of more than 100 US citizen children does not include dozens of children whose citizenship status or age was unclear, or where fundraisers couldn’t be verified.

The fundraising accounts, which GoFundMe confirmed to CNN had been verified by the company’s trust and safety team, also served as a window into where separated children have ended up. Some were taken into foster care. Most were being cared for by family friends, community members or relatives.

ICE said it couldn’t comment on CNN’s analysis because it included anonymous families and some of the information had come from what it called “notoriously biased and unreliable” crowdfunding websites. The spokesperson did not respond to questions about how often children were ending up in this situation or whether this was something being internally tracked by the agency.

Immigration experts said said it is difficult to fully assess how widespread the issue is until the federal government comprehensively tracks and releases that data. There are millions of US citizen children living in households where their only parent or both parents are undocumented, Brookings Institution research shows.

Attorneys told CNN about cases ranging from an 8-year-old who allegedly watched her single mother get handcuffed and taken away by ICE to a one-year-old who is currently living with a foster family as the toddler’s mom fights for custody from detention.

“It’s stunning that we’re putting so much emphasis on hitting deportation numbers, and not thinking about all the collateral damage we’re doing,” said Leecia Welch, deputy litigation director at nonprofit Children’s Rights, who has been visiting families in immigrant detention centers to monitor conditions. “We’re traumatizing everybody involved in these situations and completely destabilizing their lives and causing long-term trauma.”

‘It terrifies me’

It was around 6:30 in the morning when Kenia Perez arrived home from her overnight shift at the hospital.

She had stopped at the store to get milk for her daughter’s cereal and was planning to go inside and wake her kids up and get them ready for school, when she saw two large, unfamiliar cars parked outside her apartment.

ICE agents were waiting for her.

“Run away as far as you can,” she texted her 14-year-old son, Isaac, who jumped out the window. Since Isaac was also undocumented, she worried ICE would take him too — leaving Febe and Angelo without any family in the country.

Agents in tactical vests and local police officers surrounded her in the parking lot.

Desperate to keep her children out of foster care, her next call was to Jeff Chaney, a family friend and coworker who had agreed just a day earlier to take guardianship of the children if ICE came for her — something she had become increasingly nervous about under the Trump administration.

Perez had been in the US for roughly a decade, fleeing cartel violence in her native Honduras. She described to CNN how she was assaulted, raped and left in a dumpster on her journey. She was pregnant when she was apprehended at the border and records show she was released under an order requiring regular check-ins with ICE. She met and married her husband in the years that followed and created a family in Galveston, Texas. Only months after she gave birth to her third child, her husband passed away from Covid in 2020, and she suddenly became the sole caregiver for her three children — two of whom, Febe and Angelo, are US citizens.

Perez said she paid taxes and documents show that she never missed a check-in with ICE. Her work permit is not set to expire until the spring of 2026. But ICE came for her anyway.

Unlike other cases examined by CNN, Perez said she was allowed to go into her apartment, wake her children, and tell them goodbye.

“I need you to be strong,” she remembers telling Febe and Angelo. “You see those men. They’re going to take Mom.”

Perez prayed she would be able to take her children with her to Honduras. Even though she knew it would be dangerous, she couldn’t imagine being separated.

But she was deported 11 days after her arrest, leaving her friend, Chaney, trying to lighten the kids’ moods. He took them to IHOP on the weekends and held movie nights at his house.

Chaney couldn’t keep the kids at his house given the long hours he worked at his two jobs, so the children spent several days bouncing around among a network of Perez’s coworkers’ homes until one of her undocumented friends gave them a place to stay, at least temporarily. Because the kids didn’t have access to any of the funds Perez had saved from her job, community members began supporting the family through a GoFundMe campaign.

In an interview with CNN, Chaney said that when he voted for Trump last year, he understood that immigration enforcement was a top priority for his administration. He supported the Republican Party’s promise to secure the border and to go after criminals and gang members.

But he never imagined that someone like Perez, his close friend and co-worker, would end up caught in the crackdown.

“This is not what I voted for,” he said, adding that he never supported the targeting of working-class people who had been doing everything right. “You don’t do this. This is inhumane what they’re doing.”

An ICE spokesperson told CNN Perez asked to be reunited with her children before she was deported, but that she refused to provide agents with their specific location. Perez told CNN she did not want to endanger any of her undocumented friends who were helping to care for her kids when she was first arrested, but that she had hoped that while she was in detention, she would have an opportunity to secure their passports so that they could be reunited when she was deported. “After exhausting all efforts, ICE proceeded with her removal in accordance with federal law,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson described Perez as an “irresponsible parent,” who “chose to use her children as a bargaining chip in an attempt to prevent her own removal from the country.”

“Any claims by her now that ICE improperly separated her from her kids are patently false and just another attempt to manipulate the system for her own benefit,” the spokesperson said.

From a small home on a dirt road in a neighborhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, known for gang violence, Perez called her kids every night, telling them everything was going to be OK. Her daughter’s dolls and her son’s toys sat waiting for them, along with two spots next to her in her bed.

More than two months after she was deported, Perez was finally able to secure the paperwork and passports needed for Febe and Angelo to reunite with her in Honduras, where her oldest son had also joined her. But she told CNN she worries about her children and the life they will have in one of the most violent countries in the world.

“It terrifies me,” she said. “I don’t like the decisions I’m making, but I’m tied hand and foot.”

METHODOLOGY

CNN’s analysis, which provided a snapshot of the number of US citizen children being stranded by ICE actions, included accounts from interviews with families, attorneys and nonprofit organizations, as well as fundraisers from the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe. CNN provided GoFundMe with a list of roughly 150 campaigns to confirm which fundraisers had been verified by the company’s Trust & Safety Team as part of its standard verification process, and reporters contacted the organizers and family members. The count does not include dozens of children whose citizenship status or age was unclear, or where fundraisers couldn’t be verified.

CNN’s Abel Alvarado, Norma Galeana and Yahya Abou-Ghazala contributed to this report.

‘The new family separation crisis’: More than 100 US citizen kids left stranded by ICE enforcement actions, CNN finds | CNN Politics
Children across the US have ended up in the care of relatives, neighbors, friends, coworkers and even strangers after ICE detained or deported their parents.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/23/politics/us-citizen-children-separated-parents-deported-ice-invs

Guardian: California nurses decry Ice presence at hospitals: ‘Interfering with patient care’

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Caregiving staff say agents are bringing in patients, often denying them visitors and speaking on their behalf to staff

Dianne Sposito, a 69-year-old nurse, is laser-focused on providing care to anyone who enters the UCLA emergency room in southern California, where she works.

That task was made difficult though one week in June, she said, when a federal immigration agent blocked her from treating an immigrant who was screaming just a few feet in front of her in the hospital.

Sposito, a nurse with more than 40 years of experience, said her hospital is among many that have faced hostile encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents amid the Trump administration’s escalating immigration crackdown.

The nurse said that the Ice agent – wearing a mask, sunglasses and hat without any clear identification – brought a woman already in custody to the hospital. The patient was screaming and trying to get off the gurney, and when Sposito tried to assess her, the agent blocked her and told her not to touch the patient.

“I’ve worked with police officers for years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sposito said. “It was very frightful because the person behind him is screaming, yelling, and I don’t know what’s going on with her.”

The man confirmed he was an Ice agent, and when Sposito asked for his name, badge, and warrant, he refused to give her his identification and insisted he didn’t need a warrant. The situation escalated until the charge nurse called hospital administration, who stepped in to handle it.

“They’re interfering with patient care,” Sposito said.

After the incident, Sposito said that hospital administration held a meeting and clarified that Ice agents are only allowed in public areas, not ER rooms and that staff should call hospital administration immediately if agents are present.

But for Sposito, the guidelines fall short, as the hostility is unlike anything she has seen in over two decades as a nurse, she said..

“[The agent] would not show me anything. You don’t know who these people are. I found it extremely harrowing, and the fact that they were blocking me from a patient – that patient could be dying.”

Since the Trump administration has stepped up its arrest of immigrants at the start of the summer, nurses are seeing an increase in Ice presence at hospitals, with agents bringing in patients to facilities, said Mary Turner, president of National Nurses United, the largest organization of registered nurses in the country.

“The presence of Ice agents is very disruptive and creates an unsafe and fearful environment for patients, nurses and other staff,” Turner said. “Immigrants are our patients and our colleagues.”

While there’s no national data tracking Ice activity in hospitals, several regional unions have said they’ve seen an increase.

“We’ve heard from members recently about Ice agents or Ice contractors being inside hospitals, which never occurred prior to this year,” said Sal Rosselli, president emeritus of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

Turner said nurses have reported that agents sometimes prevent patients from contacting family or friends and that Ice agents have listened in on conversations between patients and healthcare workers, actions that violate HIPAA, the federal law protecting patient privacy.

In addition, Turner said, nurses have reported concerns that patients taken away by Ice will not receive the care they need. “Hospitals are supposed to discharge a patient with instructions for the patient and/or whoever will be caring for them as they convalesce,” Turner said.

The increased presence of immigration agents at hospitals comes after Donald Trump issued an executive order overturning the long-standing status of hospitals, healthcare facilities and schools as “sensitive locations”, where immigration enforcement was limited.

Nurses, in California and other states across the nation, said they fear the new policy, in addition to deterring care at medical facilities, will deter sick people from seeking care when they need it.

“Allowing Ice undue access to hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other healthcare institutions is both deeply immoral and contrary to public health,” said George Gresham, president of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, and Patricia Kane, the executive director of the New York State Nurses Association in a statement. “We must never be put into positions where we are expected to assist, or be disrupted by, federal agents as they sweep into our institutions and attempt to detain patients or their loved ones.”

Policies on immigration enforcement vary across healthcare facilities. In California, county-run public healthcare systems are required to adopt the policies laid out by the state’s attorney general, which limit information sharing with immigration authorities, require facilities to inform patients of their rights and set protocols for staff to register, document and report immigration officers’ visits. However, other healthcare entities are only encouraged to do so. Each facility develops its own policies based on relevant state or federal laws and regulations.

Among the most high-profile cases of Ice presence in hospitals in California occurred outside of Los Angeles in July. Ming Tanigawa-Lau, a staff attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, represents Milagro Solis Portillo, a 36-year-old Salvadorian woman who was detained by Ice outside her home in Sherman Oaks and hospitalized that same day at Glendale Memorial, where detention officers kept watch in the lobby around the clock.

Solis Portillo was then forcibly removed from Glendale Memorial against her doctor’s orders and transferred to Anaheim Global Medical center, another regional hospital, according to her lawyer. Once there, Ice agents barred her from receiving visitors, denied her access to family and her attorney, prevented private conversations with doctors and interrupted a monitored phone call with Tanigawa-Lau.

“I repeatedly asked Ice to tell me which law or which policy they were referring to that allowed them to deny visits, and especially access to her attorney, and they never responded to me,” Tanigawa-Lau said.

Ice officers sat by Solis Portillo’s bed and often spoke directly to medical staff on her behalf, according to Tanigawa-Lau. This level of surveillance violated both patient confidentiality and detainee rights, interfering with her care and traumatizing her, Tanigawa-Lau said.

Since then, Solis Portillo was moved between facilities, from the Los Angeles processing center to a federal prison and eventually out of state to a jail in Clark county, Indiana.

In a statement, Glendale Memorial said “the hospital cannot legally restrict law enforcement or security personnel from being present in public areas which include the hospital lobby/waiting area”.

“Ice does not conduct enforcement operations at hospitals nor interfere with medical care of any illegal alien,” said DHS assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin. “It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters Ice custody. This includes access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”

The federal government has aggressively responded to healthcare workers challenging the presence of immigration agents at medical facilities. In August the US Department of Justice charged two staff members at the Ontario Advanced Surgical center in San Bernardino county in California, accusing them of assaulting federal agents.

The charges stem from events on 8 July, when Ice agents chased three men at the facility. One of the men, an immigrant from Honduras, fled on foot to evade law enforcement and was briefly captured in the center’s parking lot, and then he broke free and ran inside, according to the indictment. There, the government said, two employees at the center, tried to protect the man and remove federal agents from the building.

“The staff attempted to obstruct the arrest by locking the door, blocking law enforcement vehicles from moving, and even called the cops claiming there was a ‘kidnapping’,” said McLaughlin. The Department of Justice referred questions about the case to DHS.

The immigrant was eventually taken into custody, and the health care workers, Jesus Ortega and Danielle Nadine Davila were charged with “assaulting and interfering with United States immigration officers attempting to lawfully detain” an immigrant.

Oliver Cleary, who represents Davila, said a video shows that Ice’s claim that Davila assaulted the agent is false.

“They’re saying that because she placed her body in between them, that that qualifies as a strike,” Cleary said. “The case law clearly requires it to be a physical force strike, and that you can tell that didn’t happen.”

The trial is slated to start on 6 October.

California nurses decry Ice presence at hospitals: ‘Interfering with patient care’
Caregiving staff say agents are bringing in patients, often denying them visitors and speaking on their behalf to staff

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/16/california-ice-hospitals-patient-care

News Nation: Mexican immigrants more likely to remain behind bars after arrest, data shows

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Mexican nationals are more likely to be detained after being apprehended by federal immigration officers, according to data compiled by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

TRAC figures show that in July, 57 percent of Mexican nationals arrested for crossing the border or for being in the country illegally were held in detention centers while their proceedings take place in immigration court.

By contrast, overall, only 30 percent of migrants were detained after their apprehensions.

According to TRAC, ICE determines when a person is held, and that there is no specific pattern in the decision-making.

“In reality, little is known about the factors that influence these custody decisions,” writes TRAC. “The ICE agents have wide discretion to make decisions and their criteria is rarely revealed.”

According to TRAC, it appears decisions are taken by the agents themselves and are influenced by their own backgrounds and ethnic identity.

However, the state in which migrants are apprehended can also determine whether they are detained.

TRAC says being detained can have major implications, adding that individuals who remain in custody have a more difficult time obtaining the documents and the legal help to make a case against deportation.

TRAC also says that the vast majority of individuals in ICE custody, through June 30, had no criminal record, and that 4 out of 5, either had no record or had only committed a minor offense such as a traffic violation.

Racial discrimination? Probably!

Click on one of the links below to see their detention rates nationality by nationality.

Mexican immigrants more likely to remain behind bars after arrest, data shows
“In reality, little is known about the factors that influence these custody decisions,” writes TRAC. “The ICE agents have wide discretion to make decisions and the criteria used b…

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/mexican-immigrants-more-likely-to-remain-behind-bars-after-arrest-data-shows

Associated Press: Legal aid group sues to preemptively block U.S. from deporting a dozen Honduran children

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A legal aid group has sued to preemptively block any efforts by the U.S. government to deport a dozen Honduran children, saying it had “credible” information that such plans were quietly in the works.

The Arizona-based Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP) on Friday added Honduran children to a lawsuit filed last weekend that resulted in a judge temporarily blocking the deportation of dozens of migrant children to their native Guatemala.

In a statement, the organization said it had received reports that the U.S. government will “imminently move forward with a plan to illegally remove Honduran children in government custody as soon as this weekend, in direct violation of their right to seek protection in the United States and despite ongoing litigation that blocked similar attempted extra-legal removals for children from Guatemala.”

FIRRP did not immediately provide The Associated Press with details about what information it had received about the possible deportation of Honduran children. The amendment to the organization’s lawsuit is sealed in federal court. The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to email requests for comment on Friday and Saturday.

The Justice Department on Saturday provided what is perhaps its most detailed account of a chaotic Labor Day weekend involving the attempted deportation of 76 Guatemalan children. Its timeline was part of a request to lift a temporary hold on their removal.

Over Labor Day weekend, the Trump administration attempted to remove Guatemalan children who had come to the U.S. alone and were living in shelters or with foster care families in the U.S.

Advocates who represent migrant children in court filed lawsuits across the country seeking to stop the government from removing the children, and on Sunday a federal judge stepped in to order that the kids stay in the U.S. for at least two weeks.

The government initially identified 457 Guatemalan children for possible deportation, according to Saturday’s filing. None could have a pending asylum screening or claim, resulting in the removal of 91. They had to have parents or legal guardians in Guatemala and be at least 10 years old.

In the end, 327 children were found eligible for deportation, including 76 who boarded planes early Sunday in what the government described as a first phase, according to a statement by Angie Salazar, acting director of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. All 76 were at least 14 years old and “self-reported” that they had a parent or legal guardian in Guatemala but none in the United States.

The Justice Department said no planes took off, despite a comment by one of its attorneys in court Sunday that one may have but returned.

Children who cross the border alone are generally transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under the Health and Human Services Department. The children usually live in a network of shelters across the country that are overseen by the resettlement office until they are eventually released to a sponsor — usually a relative

Children began crossing the border alone in large numbers in 2014, peaking at 152,060 in the 2022 fiscal year. July’s arrest tally translates to an annual clip of 5,712 arrests, reflecting how illegal crossings have dropped to their lowest levels in six decades.

Guatemalans accounted for 32% of residents at government-run holding facilities last year, followed by Hondurans, Mexicans and El Salvadorans. A 2008 law requires children to appear before an immigration judge with an opportunity to pursue asylum, unless they are from Canada and Mexico. The vast majority are released from shelters to parents, legal guardians or immediate family while their cases wind through court.

Justice Department lawyers said federal law allows the Department of Health and Human Services to “repatriate” or “reunite” children by taking them out of the U.S., as long as the child hasn’t been a victim of “severe” human trafficking, is not at risk for becoming so if he or she is returned to their native country and does not face a “a credible fear” of persecution there. The child also cannot be “repatriated” if he or she has a pending asylum claim.

The FIRRP lawsuit was amended to include 12 children from Honduras who have expressed to the Florence Project that they do not want to return to Honduras, as well as four additional children from Guatemala who have come into government custody in Arizona since the suit was initially filed last week.

Some children have parents who are already in the United States.

The lawsuit demands that the government allow the children their legal right to present their cases to an immigration judge, to have access to legal counsel and to be placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.

Legal aid group sues to preemptively block U.S. from deporting a dozen Honduran children
A legal aid group has sued to preemptively block any efforts by the U.S. government to deport a dozen Honduran children, saying it had “credible” information that such plans were quietly in the works.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-children-trump-deportations-guatemala-honduras-70c0912b3ee8c1038e793974b7141d67

Latin Times: Trump Admin Already Sending Migrants To African Country As Part Of Deportation Agreement

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Seven migrants from third countries were sent to Rwanda, the country confirmed

The Trump administration deported seven migrants from third countries to Rwanda in August as part of an agreement, the African nation confirmed on Thursday.

Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said in a statement that the group arrived to the country in mid-August, ABC News reported.

They were “accommodated by an international organization,” Makolo added, and are being visited both by members of the International Organization for Migration and the Rwandan social services.

“Three of the individuals have expressed a desire to return to their home countries, while four wish to stay and build lives in Rwanda,” the spokeswoman added. They are also set to receive workforce training and healthcare. She provided no information of the migrants sent to the country.

Rwanda will take up to 250 migrants following an agreement signed in June.

Four African countries accepted receiving migrants from third countries from the U.S., the other ones being Eswatini, South Sudan and Uganda.

Uganda is the latest one to do so, with CBS News reporting earlier this month that it agreed to the deal as long as deportees don’t have criminal records. It is not clear how many migrants the country is willing to accept.

Overall, at least a dozen countries have already accepted or agreed to accept deportees from third nations so far in the second Trump administration.

Earlier this month the Miami Herald reported that more than three in ten migrants deported to third countries are Venezuelan. The outlet scanned through data obtained by the University of California’s Deportation Data Project. It showed that Venezuelans make up the largest share of deportees sent to countries where they were neither born nor were citizens.

Overall, close to 3,000 Venezuelans were deported to third countries during the first six months of the year, although the outlet clarified that the dataset is likely incomplete. Over two hundreds were infamously sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador, where many claimed to be subjected to numerous abuses before being released as part of a three-part agreement involving the U.S., Venezuela and the Central American country.

Most have been sent to Spanish-speaking countries including Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Spain. However, two were sent to Austria, one to Italy, one to Syria and one to Vanuatu, in the Pacific.

Overall, 7,900 such deportations were recorded by then, with Venezuelans representing 36.71% of the total. They are followed by Guatemalans (20%) and Hondurans (7.8%).

Trump Admin Already Sending Migrants To African Country As Part Of Deportation Agreement
The Trump administration deported migrants from third countries to Rwanda in August, the African nation confirmed

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-admin-already-sending-migrants-african-country-part-deportation-agreement-588923

Daily Beast: U.S. Citizen: I Was Seized by ICE and Held for Days Without Water

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Andrea Velez spent two days in a Los Angeles detention center despite telling ICE officers that she is a U.S. citizen.

An American citizen has told how she was held by ICE for 48 hours, claiming she was denied water despite proving her legal status.

Andrea Velez, 32, had just arrived at work in Downtown Los Angeles on June 24 when agents grabbed her and forced her into a car.

Velez told NBC4 News Los Angeles that an immigration raid was going on when she was slammed to the ground. Velez, a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, who works in fashion was taken into custody while her mother, Margarita Flores, screamed at agents to stop.

“She’s a U.S. citizen,” Velez’s mother, an immigrant from Mexico, said through tears. “They’re taking her. Help her, someone.”

Velez said she was sitting in a detention center and was given nothing to drink for 24 hours. In total she spent two days in detention. She said that the ordeal has left her unable to physically return to work.

“I’m taking things day by day,” she told the station.

The incident had been notorious from the beginning. LAPD officers were called to the scene because it was reported as a “kidnapping” but did not intervene when it became clear it was an ICE action—even though it was against a U.S. citizen, ABC& Los Angeles previously reported.

Velez was charged with assaulting a federal officer while he was attempting to arrest a suspect. A federal criminal complaint alleged that the agent was chasing after a man but Velez stepped into the agent’s path and extended her arm “in an apparent effort to prevent him from apprehending the male subject he was chasing.” The complaint added that her arm hit the agent in the face.

The incident had been notorious from the beginning. LAPD officers were called to the scene because it was reported as a “kidnapping” but did not intervene when it became clear it was an ICE action—even though it was against a U.S. citizen, ABC& Los Angeles previously reported.

Velez was charged with assaulting a federal officer while he was attempting to arrest a suspect. A federal criminal complaint alleged that the agent was chasing after a man but Velez stepped into the agent’s path and extended her arm “in an apparent effort to prevent him from apprehending the male subject he was chasing.” The complaint added that her arm hit the agent in the face.

Velez denied wrongdoing. She said that during the incident, someone grabbed her and slammed her to the ground. She tried to tell the agent, who was in plainclothes, that she was an American citizen. But he told her she was “interfering” and he was going to arrest her.

“That’s when I asked him to show me his ID, his badge number,” she said. “I asked him if he had a warrant, and he said I didn’t need to know any of that.”

Velez said she repeatedly told ICE officers she was a U.S. citizen. When she was taken into a Los Angeles detention center, she gave officers her driver’s license and health insurance card to prove her citizenship status. She was still locked behind bars.

Velez’s family was unaware of her whereabouts for more than a day until lawyers for the family tracked her down.

Later, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed her case without prejudice, meaning it could be reopened if prosecutors decide to.

Velez’s attorneys told NBC Los Angeles that they are exploring legal moves against the federal government.

Between 2015 and 2020, ICE erroneously deported at least 70 U.S. citizens, arrested 674 and detained 121. It is unclear how many have been mistakenly taken amid the Trump administration’s mass campaign to deport 1 million immigrants per year.

In January, U.S. citizen Julio Noriega was looking for work in Chicago when he was swept up in the mass raids. In May, Georgia college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal was detained after police pulled over the wrong car during a traffic stop. In June, a deputy U.S. marshal was detained in Arizona because he “fit the general description of a subject being sought by ICE.” That same month, a Ph.D. student named Job Garcia was tackled and thrown to the ground by ICE for recording a raid in Los Angeles.

A recent lawsuit claims that at least three American-born children have been removed from the country. The sudden banishment includes a 4-year-old boy with stage-four kidney cancer who was receiving critical, life-saving medical treatment in the United States. He was shipped from Louisiana to Honduras in April.

The Daily Beast has reached out to ICE for comment.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Beast: “FALSE. ICE provided Andrea Velez with water, food, sanitary products, and she was given restroom breaks as needed. The media needs to stop peddling lies and smears that have led to a 1000% increase in assaults against our brave ICE officers.”

U.S. Citizen: I Was Seized by ICE and Held for Days Without Water
Andrea Velez spent two days in a Los Angeles detention center despite telling ICE officers that she is a U.S. citizen.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-citizen-andrea-velez-i-was-seized-by-ice-and-held-for-days-without-water

MSN: Government agency’s social media post under fire for using unlicensed music and media

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Government agency’s social media post under fire for using unlicensed music and media
America’s Department of Homeland Security isn’t just enforcing immigration law—it’s also making memes on X and Instagram, posting migrant mugshots, ICE recruitment ads, and “humorous” content. Many of these posts borrow images, music, and clips from artists, TV shows, and airlines without permission, including a South Park still and a use of Jess Glynne’s song “Hold My Hand.” Both the show’s creators and Glynne publicly criticized DHS, highlighting the misuse of content meant for satire or positivity. DHS hasn’t directly addressed copyright concerns, instead claiming it’s “bypassing the mainstream media to give Americans the facts.” Experts say claiming fair use is difficult when promoting a government agenda, and licenses on social platforms often don’t cover organizational use, meaning DHS would still need permission. So far, a few videos have had music muted, but no formal lawsuits have been filed, though other agencies have faced similar pushback for unlicensed use of music.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peopleandplaces/government-agency-s-social-media-post-under-fire-for-using-unlicensed-music-and-media/vi-AA1KBXSO

The State: Child with stage 4 cancer deported by ICE despite being US citizen, lawsuit says

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A 4-year-old boy’s ongoing care for stage 4 kidney cancer was interrupted when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers illegally deported him, his sister and mother “without even a semblance of due process,” attorneys for the family say.

Though they are U.S. citizens and were born Louisiana, the boy and his 7-year-old sister were deported to Honduras along with their 25-year-old mother, who is a Honduran citizen, on April 25, according to a federal lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Louisiana on July 31. The filing uses pseudonyms for the family, referring to the brother and sister as Romeo and Ruby and their mother as Rosario.

Before their deportations, Romeo, now 5, was receiving “life-saving” treatment at a New Orleans children’s hospital for his “rare and aggressive form” of cancer, following his diagnosis at age 2, a complaint says.

“As a direct consequence of ICE’s unlawful conduct, Romeo was deprived of much-needed continuity in his treatment, and he has faced substantial health risks due to his inability to access emergency specialized care and the routine critical oncological care that was available to him in the United States,” his family’s attorneys wrote in the complaint.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Romeo and his family, as well as a second family also wrongly deported by ICE under similar circumstances on April 25, according to the National Immigration Project, Gibson Dunn, Most & Associates, and Ware Immigration, groups representing the case.

The second family includes Julia, 30, a mother from Honduras. She has two daughters, Jade, 2, a U.S. citizen born in Baton Rouge, and Janelle, 11, also a Honduran citizen. Those names are also pseudonyms.

The same week of both families’ deportations, Rosario and Julia separately went to what they thought were supposed to be “regularly scheduled check-ins” with an ICE contractor.

However, officers with ICE apprehended both women and their children “in hotel rooms” in secret, the National Immigration Project said in a July 31 news release.

ICE “denied them the opportunity to speak to family and make decisions about or arrangements for their minor children, denied them access to counsel, and deported them within less than a day in one case and just over 2 days in the other,” the advocacy organization said.

According to the lawsuit, ICE did not let Rosario or Julia decide whether they wanted their children to come with them to Honduras or to make arrangements for them to stay in the U.S. with other loved ones.

“Given Romeo’s cancer and specialized medical needs, Rosario wanted both of her U.S. citizen children to remain in the United States,” the complaint says.

DHS, however, maintains both women wanted their children with them.

In response to McClatchy News’ request for comment for DHS and ICE on Aug. 11, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “the media and Democrat politicians are force-feeding the public false information that U.S. citizen children are being deported. This is false and irresponsible.”

“Rather than separate their families, ICE asked the mothers if they wanted to be removed with their children or if they wanted ICE to place the children with someone safe the parent designates,” McLaughlin added. “The parents in this instance made the determination to take their children with them back to Honduras.”

The lawsuit has been brought against Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE and ICE Director Todd Lyons, as well as New Orleans ICE Field Office Director Brian Acuna, the office’s Assistant Field Office Director Scott Ladwig and the office’s former director, Mellissa Harper.

Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre declined to comment.

‘Detained and deported U.S. citizens’

After being deported in April, Rosario said in a statement shared in National Immigration Project’s news release that life in Hondorus has been “incredibly hard.”

“I don’t have the resources to care for my children the way they need,” Rosario said.

The morning of April 25, ICE officers are accused of waking Rosario, Romeo and Ruby and forcing them into a van.

They drove them to an airport in the Alexandria area and had them flown to Honduras, the lawsuit says.

With her son still in need of specialized treatment for his cancer, which had spread to his lungs, she has to send Romeo “back and forth” from Honduras to the U.S. for care, without her, according to the complaint.

“Even though she has very limited financial resources, Rosario has already had to pay for flights and travel companions to enable her children to return to the United States for Romeo’s necessary medical appointments,” the complaint says.

Romeo, whose health has worsened, has been temporarily staying in the U.S. for cancer treatment, according to the filing.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare that ICE wrongly arrested, detained and deported Rosario, Romeo and Ruby, as well as Julia, Jade and Janelle, in violation of their constitutional rights.

“This whole situation has been incredibly stressful,” Julia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, the father of her daughters, said in a statement shared by the National Immigration Project.

“Returning to Honduras has meant leaving my husband behind, and that’s been very hard,” she added.

In a statement to McClatchy News, National Immigration Project attorney Stephanie Alvarez-Jones said “ICE put these families through a series of incredibly traumatizing experiences, taking actions that are completely shocking from a human perspective and illegal even by ICE’s own standards.”

“ICE denied these families the fundamental opportunity to make meaningful choices about the care and custody of their children, and detained and deported U.S. citizens in flagrant violation of its own policy and the law,” Alvarez-Jones added.

The families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages and demand a jury trial.

Child with stage 4 cancer deported by ICE despite being US citizen, lawsuit says

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/child-with-stage-4-cancer-deported-by-ice-despite-being-us-citizen-lawsuit-says/ar-AA1Knodq

Washington Examiner: Judges get emotional on Trump efforts to end temporary immigration programs

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The Trump administration has faced various legal setbacks in its efforts to implement sweeping deportations and immigration policies, with some of the judges issuing orders accusing officials of racism and unfavorable comparisons in dramatic opinions.

Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, offered the latest lengthy opinion, aimed at the morals of Trump administration officials trying to end temporary immigration programs for foreign nationals.

Challenges to revoking TPS bring racism allegations by judges

In a 37-page opinion Thursday blocking the administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua, she accused officials of “racial animus” based on their statements about criminal migrants.

“By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, [Homeland] Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s statements perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population,” Thompson wrote in her opinion.

Thompson wrote in her rejection that she “shares” the “concern” of those suing the Trump administration regarding the president’s ability to end TPS at his discretion. The Biden-appointed judge added that her court “does not forget that this country has bartered with human lives” and included a lengthy footnote discussing the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

“The emancipation of slaves saw the same pattern, but in reverse. Many whites were uncomfortable with the idea of free non-white people in their communities, even if they had lived in the United States for generations,” Thompson wrote in her opinion. “Plaintiffs’ allegations echo these same traditions.”

Thompson also alleges that ending TPS for the three countries and requiring those who had the temporary status to return to their home country is the equivalent of freed slaves being removed from the U.S. and sent to Africa.

Earlier this year, Judge Edward Chen, an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for Venezuela and accused the Trump administration of similar claims of racial animus in his 78-page opinion.

“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes,” Chen wrote in his March order.

The Trump administration’s official reasons for ending the Temporary Protected Status for the countries have been that the reasons outlined for initially granting TPS are no longer applicable, and conditions have improved.

Other decisions bring emotional responses

While many dramatic opinions from federal judges blocking the Trump administration’s policies have come in TPS lawsuits, judges have also made fiery accusations in other issues. A ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday made another unfavorable comparison about the Trump administration’s policies.

Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, compared the president’s policies blocking the administration from rapidly deporting people who had previously been paroled into the country to the countries that illegal immigrants have fled in her order.

“This case’s underlying question, then, asks whether parolees who escaped oppression will have the chance to plead their case within a system of rules,” Cobb wrote. “Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that, as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges … may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?”

Among the various rulings against the Trump administration in district courts, a case regarding the administration’s cancellation of diversity, equity, and inclusion grants at the National Institutes of Health brought another dramatic racial discrimination claim.

“I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable,” U.S. District Judge William Young said in his ruling in June. “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this.”

While the Trump administration has faced dramatic and blistering opinions at lower district courts, it has racked up several wins on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket on various issues, including terminating TPS.

The Supreme Court’s order allowing the administration to proceed with various policies, including immigration policies, has typically been accompanied by fiery dissents from the liberal minority on the high court.

The judges are seeing right through the Trump regime’s disgusting racist agenda!

Judges get emotional on Trump efforts to end temporary immigration programs
The Trump administration has faced various legal setbacks in its efforts to implement sweeping deportations and immigration policies, with some of the judges issuing orders accusing officials of racism and unfavorable comparisons in dramatic opinions. Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, offered the […]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judges-get-emotional-on-trump-efforts-to-end-temporary-immigration-programs/ar-AA1JOuJ5

Inquisitr: ‘Had to Sleep on the Floor’—Honduran Woman Detained by ICE During Routine Check-In Describes ‘Inhumane’ Conditions in U.S. Custody

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There were no beds and very little food for 30 women.

A Honduran woman, Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda, was detained by ICE when she went in for her immigration check-in last month. She did not know that going for a normal immigration check would land her up in inhumane conditions at the Broadview processing center.

She spent 4 days in the center and then transferred to the Kentucky correctional facility. Chavez Pineda who’s also an organizer with the Organized Communities Against Deportations revealed the details about her stay. She was among the 30 women who were held there. They did not have blankets, beds, or enough food.

They did not even know what was going to happen to them next, or where they would be taken next. She was arrested on June 4 along with ten other immigrants arrested that day by ICE in the South Loop.

She noted that she got a text message that asked her to report for the immigration check-in at the Michigan Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office. This way they can monitor those with deportation status change while not taking them into custody.

The moment she arrived there, she was escorted by the ICE agents regarding her new deportation orders. Despite showing the paperwork along with her two attorneys, she was arrested. She has been living in the US for ten years now, and her case is still pending. For now, she has a temporary stay of removal by the appeals council.

She argued that if she applied for her case legally, she should not get detained. She has the work permit, social security number and pays taxes. She was detained for a month in the Grayson County Jail.

There she had to stay with twenty women, and there were just ten beds for them to share. The conditions were harsh with bright light, loud noises, and no access to medical care. They could not sleep or feel safe.

The nights she spent there, she was worried about her three kids; she never wanted them to experience this. Even when she was deported on July 13, she was in handcuffs and ankle-chained till she reached Honduras.

‘Had to Sleep on the Floor’—Honduran Woman Detained by ICE During Routine Check-In Describes ‘Inhumane’ Conditions in U.S. Custody
Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda was detained and arrested by ICE when she went for an immigration check-in. She was detained in inhumane conditions.