Antonia Aguilar Maldonado, a 25-year-old Salvadoran woman, remains in ICE detention in Minnesota more than two weeks after she was arrested by federal agents in St. Paul while on her way to work.
Aguilar Maldonado, who lives in Lake Elmo, entered the U.S. without legal status as a 17-year-old unaccompanied minor in 2016. Now, she is the mother of two U.S. citizen children, including a 22-month-old nursing toddler. Her legal team says she was detained without warning, shortly after leaving her children on her way to work as a self-employed painter.
Her attorneys, Gloria Contreras Edin and Hannah Brown, say Aguilar Maldonado is being held at the Kandiyohi County Jail in Willmar, which houses ICE detainees, despite having no criminal record, an active asylum case, and a bond approved by an immigration judge.
According to her attorneys, on July 17, Aguilar Maldonado and her husband were stopped and detained by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The couple was separated and taken to different detention facilities. Aguilar Maldonado is currently being held at the Kandiyohi County Jail, which houses ICE detainees, even though she is in civil — not criminal — custody. The attorneys added her husband has separate counsel and did not share further details about his case.
Brown and Contreras Edin say at the time of Aguilar Maldonado’s arrest, agents cited an old removal order against her. But that order was previously reopened and canceled by an immigration judge after it was determined she never received proper notice of a hearing as a teenager. They say since then, she has been following the law, attending court hearings and has filed for asylum.
“So there was an assumption that she had a removal order, but that was incorrect. They claimed that she was the subject of their arrest, but did not provide any more information other than they made it clear that she does not have a criminal history,” Contreras Edin said.
On July 31, an immigration judge in Minnesota found that Aguilar Maldonado qualified for release on $10,000 bond. But ICE responded by filing an automatic stay, blocking her release under a new DHS policy that claims certain immigrants who entered the country without inspection are ineligible for bond, even if they entered as children and have lived in the U.S. for years.
Her attorneys argue this interpretation should not apply to her case, and that DHS is unfairly keeping her detained in spite of the judge’s order.
Both her attorneys say they are concerned about the conditions she’s facing in jail as a lactating mother. They say jail staff initially did not provide her a breast pump; a manual one was later purchased by staff. They say her milk has since turned green, and she is worried about her child’s health.
“She's emotionally distraught. She cries frequently during our phone calls,” Contreras Edin said. “She imagines this child crying, and she imagines her baby wailing for his milk.”
Aguilar Maldonado has been able to speak with her attorneys, and her family has made attempts to reach her. Her children are staying with an aunt and uncle.
Brown and Contreras Edin say Aguilar Maldonado wants to share her story now in hopes of drawing public attention to her case and to others like hers.
“This is not a matter of DHS apprehending violent criminals to remove them from the country,” Brown said. “This is a situation of the Department of Homeland Security apprehending a nursing mother, taking her from her child, her young nursing child, a person who entered herself as a child, and a person with no criminal history whatsoever.”
Aguilar Maldonado has filed a habeas petition, asking a federal judge to order DHS to honor the bond and release her so she can continue her asylum case outside of detention, and return to caring for her children.
A federal judge has scheduled an Aug. 12 hearing on her case to address her request for a temporary restraining order that would require ICE to release her. The judge has ordered the government to respond to her petition by Friday.
MPR News requested an interview with Aguilar Maldonado, but Contreras Edin said the mother is currently too distraught to effectively communicate.
If released, Brown and Contreras Edin say Aguilar Maldonado would continue with immigration court proceedings and attend scheduled hearings.
MPR News contacted ICE for more details regarding the case. In response, a spokesperson said in an email Friday, "By statute, we have no information on this person." The agency did not elaborate further.
