The lawyers of a Venezuelan mother of two are seeking her release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and trying to prevent her deportation.
According to a report by The Guardian, the woman was arrested during her monthly check-in with immigration authorities on Jan. 30. At the time of her arrest, she was separated from her two children, aged 18 months and four. Several weeks later, she faces deportation for unlawfully living in the United States.
She was allegedly trafficked to the United States in 2023 from Colombia by a man who, according to a habeas corpus petition filed in court last month, lured her under false promises of living as a family after impregnating her.
The habeas petition, filed in Louisiana and cited by The Guardian, alleges the man repeatedly abused her sexually, forced her to perform unpaid domestic and commercial labor, and subjected her to severe physical violence, threats, isolation, food deprivation, and other forms of abuse.
After spending several days at a detention facility in Baltimore, the woman was transferred to Monroe, Louisiana, where she has been held since, the report says, adding that her lawyers claim she has no criminal history.
Caroline Pizano, senior staff attorney at the Human Trafficking Legal Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that connects trafficking survivors with pro bono attorneys, argues that by detaining her, the Trump administration violated the "intent and purpose" of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which protects trafficking victims, including noncitizens, regardless of immigration status.
A member of a church that took in the woman after she left the alleged abuser told The Guardian that during her time at the Louisiana detention facility, she has been denied access to a breast pump needed to relieve excess milk after being separated from her younger child, whom she was still nursing.
While her client remains in immigration custody, Pizano said she "wants to work with law enforcement" to investigate the man who allegedly abused her, as friends of the woman told The Guardian she fears he may take her children away.
"We want them to investigate. This trafficker is dangerous and violent and needs to be in jail, not the victim," she said.
When contacted by the outlet about the woman's case, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an email that she "will remain in ICE custody and receive full due process."
"The T and U visa programs were never intended to be loopholes for illegal aliens seeking to stay in the United States. Congress designed them strictly for the most severe cases — genuine victims of trafficking and crime, and to support law enforcement in bringing perpetrators to justice. Having such protections does not prohibit enforcement action," the email said.
As of March 26, officials reiterated their position that holding the woman without bond is lawful. According to an analysis by the Immigration Clinic at Georgia State University College of Law, there have been 41 habeas corpus challenges to the detention of alleged trafficking victims since January 2025, when the Trump administration rescinded a policy that protected crime and trafficking victims from detention and removal.
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