Elvira Benitez-Suarez, a Sheboygan Falls woman who has lived in the U.S. for 36 years, has been released from federal immigration custody after an extended legal battle.
Her adult daughter left Wisconsin May 26 to pick up Benitez-Suarez from the Kentucky jail near Cincinnati where she has been held for more than two months. Benitez-Suarez has four U.S. citizen children and four grandchildren.
Her release follows a win in immigration court May 21. An immigration judge said she should be allowed to post bond and set her bond at the lowest legal amount, $1,500. The federal government decided not to appeal the decision, so Benitez-Suarez on May 26 posted bond.
Benitez-Suarez, 51, has no criminal record. She owns a cleaning business with her husband and is active in her Mequon church. At 15 years old, she fled sexual assault and domestic violence in Mexico, her attorney, Marc Christopher, said. In a statement, he condemned the detention of people like her who are “strengthening the communities around them.”
“Elvira’s case illustrates the cruelty and absurdity of a system where billions of taxpayer dollars are spent detaining mothers, workers, caregivers and longtime community members who pose no danger to anyone and who have spent years contributing to this country,” he said. “Our government continues to spend staggering amounts of money incarcerating individuals, in abhorrent conditions, whose only real ‘offense’ is seeking the opportunity to remain with their families and continue the lives they have already built here.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Benitez-Suarez March 10 as she was leaving a check-in appointment at the agency’s Milwaukee office. It was her second time in ICE detention in a matter of months. ICE agents first detained her when she accidentally crossed the border into Canada on a family road trip to Niagara Falls.
She spent six months in ICE detention in Ohio before a federal immigration judge determined her deportation would cause extreme hardship to her two youngest children and that she should be given a green card. The federal government appealed that decision, so she has not yet received lawful permanent residency.
The Department of Homeland Security previously said “being in detention is a choice,” and urged immigrants without documentation to leave the country. Her attorney has argued Benitez-Suarez already spent time in detention and won her case to stay in the U.S.
Christopher previously called her case one of the most egregious of his career. He had been pushing her release from the second stint in detention, arguing there was no reason she needed to be detained after that first judge’s order.
Benitez-Suarez’s release on bond became possible after a May 11 federal appeals court decision. A panel of Sixth Circuit judges said immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and have lived in the U.S. a long time should be given bond hearings. Christopher saw that news and worked to schedule a hearing for Benitez-Suarez within days.
He successfully argued Benitez-Suarez met the criteria to be granted bond: she does not pose a threat to public safety, and she is not a flight risk.
If the bond hearing had not been successful, Benitez-Suarez would’ve continued with a habeas corpus petition – a federal court case arguing her detention in Kentucky was illegal. The habeas petition was halted when Benitez-Suarez was allowed to post bond through her separate immigration court case.
Still, one piece of her immigration case continues: the federal government’s appeal of the immigration judge’s decision to grant her a green card. Christopher expects a June 8 hearing in that appeal.
Sophie Carson is a general assignment reporter who reports on religion and faith, immigrants and refugees and more. Contact her at scarson@gannett.com or 920-323-5758.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sheboygan Falls mother released from ICE detention after legal battle
Reporting by Sophie Carson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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