"On Sept. 15, my family and I arrived for our routine Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in appointment at the New York City immigration courthouse. My 6-year-old daughter was wearing her school uniform and her backpack. My husband and I planned to drop her off at school afterward. Instead, the three of us were arrested and detained. ICE officials held us at the courthouse all day with no food before transferring us to temporary housing for the night."
"At around 3 the next morning, officers woke us and put us on a commercial flight. Against our will, we were flown across the country to the family detention center in Dilley, Texas. The next two months we spent there were a living nightmare. When my family and I had fled Colombia in October 2022, we believed that the United States would be a place of refuge."
On Sept. 15, a family arrived for a routine Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in at the New York City immigration courthouse; the 6-year-old daughter wore her school uniform and backpack. The three were arrested, held without food at the courthouse, transferred to temporary housing, and then put on a commercial flight around 3 a.m. They were flown to the family detention center in Dilley, Texas and spent two months detained. The family had fled Colombia in October 2022 after threats and violence from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the journey to the United States, smugglers confined the mother and daughter in a guarded safe house and forced the mother to cook and clean; the daughter was at risk of kidnapping. The family built a life in Queens, the daughter attended school and was happy, they applied for asylum and were denied, and they later filed an application for a T visa.
Read at Slate Magazine
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