Judge Orders Release of 19-Year-Old Congolese Woman From ICE Detention

She remains part of their asylum application now under review by a federal circuit court. In the months before their detention in November, the family’s asylum case and an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals were denied. The family then sought refuge in Canada.

Under a U.S.-Canada agreement, asylum seekers must request protection in the first safe country they reach. Canadian authorities returned them to the United States, where immigration officials detained Andre separately as an adult. Andre’s mother and siblings were sent to the Dilley center.

Andre was moved between facilities for about two weeks before arriving at Dilley, where she was housed in a section for single adults. The family was later allowed brief meetings. ICE eventually granted parole to Andre’s mother and siblings, releasing them while Andre remained detained.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the facts of the case have not changed and described Andre as an adult with a final order of removal and no right to remain in the United States. The spokesperson stated that an activist judge is releasing her onto American streets and that under President Trump, the department will continue to seek the removal of those with no right to be in the country.

Lawmakers including Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel had called for Andre’s release. CoreCivic, the company that operates the Dilley facility under federal contract, said it does not enforce immigration laws, have any say in deportation or release decisions, or know the circumstances of people placed in its facilities.

Andre said she had recurring nightmares about watching her brother die in a river crossing and not being able to save him. Her mother said being released without her daughter further traumatized her, noting she had already lost one child on the journey to the United States.