Nursing mother unlawfully detained by ICE, attorney says

WCCO, GLORIA CONTREAS EDIN, CNN

By Caroline Cummings

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    TWIN CITIES, Minnesota (WCCO) — The attorneys for a nursing mother in the Twin Cities who has spent more than three weeks in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody argue she is unlawfully detained and will petition in federal court on Tuesday for her release.

Antonia Aguilar Maldonado, 26, has two young children who are U.S. citizens and lives in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, and was taken into custody on July 17. Gloria Contreras Edin and Hannah Brown, who are representing her pro bono, submitted a writ of habeas corpus petition challenging her continued detention.

They argue she should be released on bond in accordance with an immigration judge’s earlier decision on July 31, to which the Department of Homeland Security filed an automatic stay, which has kept her in the Kandiyohi County Jail.

“I’ve had over 1,000 cases before the immigration courts, and in all of my years and in all of my experience, I haven’t seen anything like this before, especially when someone is lactating, has small baby at home, no criminal history, and then being detained for so long,” Contreras Edin said in an interview. “It just goes against ICE’s policies. It just seems wrong.”

There is a hearing on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in St. Paul seeking emergency relief. In court filings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Maldonado’s detention is “fully supported by statute, regulation and the Constitution” and that “her detention is lawful because she is an applicant for admission who is not ‘clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted’ to the United States,” writing that Maldonado “herself does not claim that she has lawful status to remain in the United States.”

The government is asking the judge to reject the motion for a temporary restraining order.

“We should respect the fact that our country can and should enforce immigration laws. I think that’s important,” Contreras Edin said. “But I also think that we should recognize an element of humanitarian interests and concerns, right? We don’t want a US citizen baby being deprived of his mother’s milk. This is about a mother and a baby.”

Maldonado came to the U.S. as a teenager in 2017 and had a removal order in 2019 for failing to attend a hearing. But an immigration judge reopened her case last year after finding she wasn’t given notice of that court appearance, her attorney said.

Since then, she has been doing “everything right,” Contreras Edin explained, and filed for asylum, obtained work authorization and has no criminal history. Her arrest on July 17 came as a surprise.

“In my practice during removal proceedings, someone like Ms. Maldonado would have normally been released on a bond and then proceed with a non-detained docket, and would have been allowed to appear before an immigration judge while being able to be with her family and her children,” she said.

Contreras Edin described her client as depressed and distraught and said she has to pump breast milk and dump it in the sink.

“She’s imagining the wailing of her baby every night, and that’s what she goes to bed to, and now her milk is turning green,” she said.

Her children are currently staying with relatives.

When asked about Maldonado’s case, a spokesperson for ICE provided the following statement to WCCO: “By statute, we have no information on this person.”

Contreras Edin said she is hopeful a judge will authorize the release of Maldonado, pointing to a similar case involving a Turkish graduate student at the University of Minnesota who was detained by ICE and later released.

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