Overview
- Elvira Benitez-Suarez was detained during a routine immigration check-in and taken into ICE custody after an immigration judge had previously ruled she could obtain a green card.
- Benitez-Suarez was held for about two months at the Campbell County Detention Center in Kentucky before an immigration judge granted her bond and she was reunited with her four children.
- Her attorney and family say she has no criminal record and that she was housed with criminal detainees and experienced inadequate medical and food accommodations at the detention facilities.
- The Department of Homeland Security disputed claims about substandard conditions, saying detainees receive meals, medical care and opportunities to communicate with family and lawyers.
- The government’s appeal of the green-card ruling is pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals, briefs are reported due June 8, and a BIA decision could take many months to as long as roughly two years, leaving her long-term status unresolved.