Overview
- U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered Antonia Aguilar Maldonado released on a $10,000 bond after finding her detention inflicted irreparable harm on her and her breastfeeding infant
- Maldonado, a Lake Elmo mother of two with no criminal record, was arrested July 17 while nursing her toddler and held at Kandiyohi County Jail under a DHS appeal of an immigration judge’s bond decision
- Attorneys Gloria Contreras Edin and Hannah Brown filed a federal habeas corpus petition challenging her detention under new ICE policies that have archived protections for nursing mothers
- Community members and her church raised the $10,000 bond initially granted by Immigration Judge Kalin Ivany on July 31 but stayed by DHS, enabling her expected release once the bond is posted
- The Department of Homeland Security is continuing to contest bond grants in immigration court and maintains that her detention is lawful as her asylum proceedings move forward