After she was arrested without explanation, Marina Lopez Perez is now back in her Lake County home with her family after spending nearly seven months in ICE custody.
She was arrested by ICE agents in June along with several others after receiving a text message telling her to show up to a check-in appointment at an immigration office in South Loop. They encounter spurred protests months before the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown reached a fever pitch in Chicago.
She was transferred to a jail in Grayson County, Kentucky where she spent the next 200 days.
In late December, a federal judge in Kentucky ordered her released from the Grayson County Detention Center after an attorney there filed what’s called a habeas petition on her behalf – asking the federal government to explain why she was being detained.
It couldn’t.
While federal law allows immigration authorities to detain and deport those who entered the country illegally, the federal judge in Kentucky pointed out that those same regulations require that those being detained be provided a copy or explanation of why they were detained.
In this case, attorneys representing the federal government said while they planned to reinstate Marina’s order of removal and deport her, it couldn’t provide a copy showing that it actually happened.
In his order releasing Marina from ICE custody, Federal Judge Benjamin Beaton wrote: “the government admits it has no record of why (Marina’s) supervision was revoked and makes no effort to explain why she is now detained…”
Beaton continued: “…the Government explained that although (Marina’s) had an outstanding removal order and supervision order deferring removal pending her applications for asylum and withholding…. it couldn’t find a copy of any notice that the order had been revoked— or any documents memorializing the decision to revoke it and detain her, id…. For that reason, the Government conceded, it “cannot currently show that Petitioner’s order of supervision was revoked… In other words, the Government has waived any response to (Mariana Lopez Perez) allegations that it revoked her supervision order without notice, documents, or an interview. And it makes no effort to show that her detention is consistent with agency regulations. On this record—and with these concessions—the Government hasn’t shown any lawful authority to detain (Marina).”
And with that, Beaton ordered her released, federal court records show.
She returned to her Lake County home where her three children and husband live on Christmas Day.
Back in her Lake County home, Marina told NBC 5 Investigates that she is still traumatized by her experience in ICE custody – where she spent more than 200 days at the Grayson County Detention Center in Kentucky.
She said she spent “a long time without family, a long time without seeing what was happening outside, and I felt very sad.”
She told NBC 5 Investigates she shared a cell with 16 other women.
When asked about its agreement with ICE that allows county jails in Kentucky to hold ICE detainees, the jailer, Jason Woosley, referred investigative reporter Bennett Haeberle to reach out to ICE.
Now back in Illinois for close to three weeks, Marina said her three children are somewhat reluctant to go to school because they fear she will be apprehended again.
“And they say, ‘No, I want to stay with you, mommy. Don’t go anywhere, stay home, wait for me,'” she said in Spanish. “They don’t want me to leave – for it to happen again. And they want me to be at home when they arrive.”
Marina’s case does not dissimilar from what other immigrants across the country have experienced over the past year.
An NBC News’ analysis published in December found that at least 117,000 immigrants – more than half of whom have been in the U.S a decade or longer – face the potential for deportation after the Trump administration has pushed to reopen immigration cases that were previously paused.
Marina’s case may differ slightly, however, as the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review website shows no pending immigration case for Marina.
Arrival in U.S. in 2015 under “order of supervision”
Marina Lopez Perez entered the U.S. initially in 2014 and was immediately deported through a process called “expedited removal,” according to her immigration attorney, Cynthia Fernandez.
But eight months later, Fernandez said that Marina returned along with her then three-year old son as they were attempting to flee from domestic violence from their native country of Guatemala.
Her son was allowed to enter the U.S. under a credible fear application, according to Fernandez, who said Marina was also allowed to enter at the time under an “order of supervision” – a special type of order under U.S. immigration law that allows an individual to be released into the country after an order of removal, according to the TRAC website, a group of researchers that closely monitors immigration laws, courts and policy in the U.S.
Fernandez says Marina has lived in the Chicago area since 2015 and has been compliant with the terms of her order of supervision.
It’s still unclear to Fernandez and Marina Lopez Perez why she was detained.
NBC 5 Investigates’ emails to DHS and ICE this week seeking an explanation have so far gone unanswered.
NBC 5 Investigates sent a copy of the judge’s order releasing Marina to both DHS and the ICE on Monday asking ICE or DHS for an explanation on why Marina was detained.
While the federal court case in Kentucky shows that the federal government sought to reinstate the order for removal against Marina, immigration authorities could not present the judge with a copy.
Fernandez told NBC 5 Investigates Wednesday that they still have not heard from immigration authorities three weeks after Marina’s release from ICE custody.
No explanation
In an interview with NBC 5 Investigates asked Fernandez what makes Marina’s case stand out?
“The injustice of it all. We had never seen them not communicate with us,” Fernandez told NBC 5 Investigates. “We still don’t know why she was ever detained for that long to begin with.”
Fernandez says Marina still has no future court date in immigration court and they have not received any response to their questions to immigration authorities.
An NBC 5 Investigates’ check of immigration court hearings through the Department of Justice showed no pending court dates for Marina.
According to Fernandez, the government allowed her son to enter under a credible fear application and because he was a minor – Marina was allowed to enter too under an order of supervision – essentially probation which required her to conduct check-ins and comply with immigration services.
A smile lit up Marina’s face when she spoke about her return home to Lake County on Christmas Day.
She said her children hugged her and said: “Thank God you finally arrived for Christmas. And we won’t be spending Christmas alone.”
But the smile fades when she talks about her trouble sleeping and how she is still traumatized by what her time in ICE detention.
When asked if she fears being apprehended again, she said in Spanish: “Yes… There are things in my country that I don’t want to go back to. I want to continue my process. I want to be in a place where my children can be protected.”
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