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A Honduran family residing in Durham, North Carolina was detained and deported in less than 72 hours after attending a routine immigration check appointment in Charlotte on Monday, which activists denounce as a trap organized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Nelson Ramón Espinoza Sierra, Dacia Mariela Pacheco Galindo and their two children —Génesis Elizabeth, 11 years old, and Denis Daniel, six— had entered the United States in 2021, requested asylum in 2022, and regularly attended their control appointments for four years, according to the organization Siembra NC, as reported by Telemundo 51.
The aunt of the children, Lilian, waited outside the immigration office in Charlotte for 90 minutes before receiving a call from a federal agent who confirmed the detention.
The family was deported to Honduras this Wednesday, transported in a truck with tinted windows without being able to say goodbye to their relative.
Andreina Malki, defense manager at Siembra NC, reported that the family was lured to the check-in office under a false pretext of security and were torn from their lives, from their school, and deported in approximately 48 hours.
Activists also point out that the couple did not have access to a lawyer at any point during the detention and deportation process.
The two children of the family were students at Burton Elementary Magnet School in Durham, and the chairperson of the Durham Public Schools Board of Education, Bettina Umstead, addressed the case at a press conference last Wednesday.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded that the family had a final removal order issued by a judge for failing to appear at a previous hearing —an event distinct from the appointment on Monday— and that due process was followed.
Siembra NC confirmed at least 20 similar detentions of asylum seekers during check-in appointments in Charlotte, indicating a systematic pattern.
State Senator Sophia Chitlik, from North Carolina's 22nd District, described the deportations as arbitrary and stated that she will not remain silent while children are taken and deported without due process.
Chitlik announced that elected officials from Durham will accompany families to their upcoming immigration appointments: "We will act as witnesses and, to the extent possible, document what happens and help provide rapid response assistance."
The case is set against an unprecedented tightening of immigration policy under the second term of Donald Trump. According to the University of California, Berkeley Deportation Data Project, public space migrant detentions increased elevenfold during the first year of this administration, a greater than 1,000% increase, while arrests of immigrants with no criminal records rose by 770%.
The Trump administration rejected those figures and maintained that 70% of ICE arrests involve immigrants with criminal records, adding that "everyone arrested committed a federal crime by entering the country illegally."
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