ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Dolores Bustamante-Romero was in federal court for an evidentiary hearing regarding her detention and imminent deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
She walked into federal court in a navy blue jail outfit from the Allegany County Jail, which is where she is detained while the federal hearing and decision are made.
Bustamante’s lawyers say the core claim in her case is that she was detained without due process. They also allege ICE retaliated against her for talking to the media prior to her scheduled check-in on April 22 and having the media outside ICE headquarters in Buffalo on the day of her check-in. Bustamante was arrested by ICE that day.
Bustamante escaped violence in Mexico
Bustamante testified with the help of a translator.She was asked by her attorney, Sarah Decker from the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, why she came to the United States in 2003.
“I came from Mexico because of domestic violence. I didn’t know what to do and I thought coming here was best,” Bustamante said.
Bustamante said she cleaned offices in New Jersey, worked on farms in Florida and eventually settled in New York. She said she was “sexually assaulted and harassed” while she worked which caused her to start working for farm worker and immigration rights in New York.For instance, she advocated for the Green Light Law which allowed undocumented residents to get a drivers license.
Bustamante’s first contact with Border Patrol came in 2014 when she was pulled over for speeding in Wayne County.She was released while her case went through the process and that included regular check-ins with ICE through an app on her phone.
In March, Bustamante got a text saying she had to check-in in person in Buffalo. News10NBC chief investigative reporter Berkeley Brean was there when she walked through the ICE doors.
ICE agents to Bustamante: “You’re famous”
Bustamante said she was taken to an office with three officers. She said one of them said “You’re famous.”Later, another officer asked her “who called the press?” referring to the media outside the ICE building including News10NBC.
Bustamante said she was not allowed to talk to her daughter and was not given an explanation as to why she was being held.
“I felt nervous and worried because I didn’t know what was going on or what would happen next,” she testified.
Bustamante said after three hours at the ICE office she was finger printed, handcuffed, put in an elevator, taken out a back door and into a waiting car. She said the car drove a short distance to a parking lot and another waiting car. This time, Bustamante testified she was shackled and driven to a jail cell in Ohio.The next day Bustamante was shackled and taken to a plane.She testified her name was not on the flight manifest.Bustamante was eventually taken on board and said she suffered an anxiety attack on the flight to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana.Bustamante testified her name was not on the ICE list when the plane landed.
Bustamante cried multiple times during her testimony.
Lawyer: so haphazard Bustamante “wasn’t on the flight manifest”
After the testimony, Bustamante’s lawyers and the attorney from the U.S. Attorney’s office argued several points of law.
Defense attorney Rhiya Trivedi said ICE did not share basic paperwork with Bustamante before they detained her.
“She was not prepared to be removed. Even the officers with her (at ICE headquarters) didn’t know what to do with her,” Trivedi told Judge Meredith Vacca. “They took her in so haphazardly that she wasn’t on the flight manifest.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Khalil could not say who made the decision to remove Bustamante or when it happened. “She falls under this push for removal and she had a final order of removal,” he said in court.
“Is there a standard notice people like Dolores Bustamante would get?” asked Judge Vacca.“I don’t know. I’ve never seen one,” Khalil said. “But risk of flight is a concern.”
Khalil argued that the notice of removal was effectively made when Bustamante got a final order of removal and her appeals were exhausted.
“Bustamante was on notice as soon as she was ordered removed,” Khalil argued.
Judge: “far fetched” that Bustamante got notice
Judge Vaccca said it is “far fetched” that Bustamante got sufficient notice.
“The government’s position is do what it wants, to who is wants whenever it wants as long as there is a final order of removal,” Trivedi said.
Trivedi also argued that ICE did not give Bustamante a required informal interview prior to being detained. The interview gives people an opportunity to convince ICE they should not be detained, like they are a primary caregiver to a vulnerable person, for instance.Instead, ICE agents told her she was famous and asked about reporters outside the building.Trivedi told the court that many people with orders of removal are still entitled to an orderly departure.
“The speed which was used to remove her was retaliatory,” Trivedi said. “My client had a right to say goodbye.”
Trivedi argued that ICE detained and tried to deport Bustamante as retaliation for advocating for farm worker and immigration rights and for talking to the press and inviting the press to her check-in day.
“The rushed and hurried way they tried to disappear her to Mexico shows retaliation,” she said.
“There is no connection between her advocacy and the decision to remove her,” Khalil said.” Those two are incompatible.”
Judge Vacca ordered that Bustamante must be kept in the western district of New York. She said she would have a decision “very soon.”
“Within 48 hours,” Judge Vacca said.
Before the court was cleared, the court gave Bustamante permission to turn and talk to her children, grandchildren and supporters.
‘They took her in so haphazardly’: Lawyers argue ICE retaliated against immigrant rights advocate for talking to the press WHEC.com.
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