Local Woman Detained After Reporting to Appointment with ICE
Mirna Benitez, a contracted custodian for many years at a local school, received a text message informing her of an appointment. She went, and was sent to a detention facility.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Earlier this month, Mirna Benitez received a text message informing her of an appointment at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in North Chesterfield.
The message instructed her to report to the office at 8 a.m. on Sunday, December 7.
“PLEASE DO NOT MISS YOUR APPOINTMENT,” it continued.
The message was from ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. Benitez, a custodian employed by a contracted company whose job site for the past 10 years has been a local public school, was enrolled in the program earlier this year and had been using it to check in via photo or phone call once a week.
Benitez went to the appointment—and was detained. According to her 21-year-old daughter, Laura, she was taken first to a Richmond jail, then to a detention facility in Texas, and then to one in Louisiana.
“She was put on a plane—she said the plane was unsanitary and pretty terrifying, so much so that the pilot, as soon as they landed in Texas, he ran off the plane,” Elizabeth Jones, a family friend, told the Advance. “Mirna told her daughter and best friend that her things were covered in urine. She’s since been transferred to Louisiana, which is also not great. The facilities are unsanitary and she got an infection.”
According to Laura, Benitez has been in the United States for 13 years and has worked for a contracted company at the same local school for 10 years. Laura has citizenship because her father was a U.S. citizen, and she was in the process of applying for a Green Card for her mother.
Before this year, Laura said, Benitez was only required to report to ICE once or twice a year, which she did. But when she reported this year, she was enrolled in the ISAP program, and since then has been required to check in with officials more frequently.
There have been multiple reports this year in at least 14 cities of immigrants who are in the country under supervision being detained and deported after reporting for appointments that they learned about via text message.
“In my 20-year career, I’ve never seen anything like this,” an immigration attorney told a Tukwila, Washington Fox 5 TV station in June.
Jones said Benitez owns a house in the Fredericksburg area, as well as three cars.
“She pays her taxes and she contributes to the economy,” Jones said.
The only thing on Benitez’s criminal record, according to an online search of local court records, is a 2016 charge for failing to obey a highway sign, for which she paid a $30 fine.
Laura said her mother loved her job at the school and had been embraced by the students, teachers, and staff.
“The school, without my mom, is not the school,” she said. “I spoke with some of the teachers and they told me, ‘We’re not eating, we’re not sleeping,’” because they are so worried about Benitez.
A Go Fund Me account set up by Jones to help the family with legal bills has raised $7,055 of its $8,000 goal as of Wednesday morning.
“Mirna is a custodian at a local school and a treasured member of the … community,” the fundraiser states. “For the past 10 years, she has worked tirelessly, paid her taxes, and followed steps toward citizenship… Now, Mirna faces deportation, and her family is left heartbroken and uncertain about the future.”
Rep. Eugene Vindman’s office has also been working to support Benitez’s family.
“I am aware of this situation and my team has been directly engaged with Mirna’s family. What she has experienced is absolutely unacceptable. No one in our community should have to endure this kind of treatment,” said Vindman. “My office has worked to support her family, seek due process, and obtain answers from immigration authorities, with limited cooperation to date. Mirna’s case highlights why comprehensive immigration reform is urgently needed. We can have secure borders without being cruel to our neighbors.”
Laura said she was never informed when her mother was moved to the Texas or Louisiana facilities.
Jones said Benitez’s family have been in touch with the El Salvadorean consulate and that her plan now is to self-deport to that country, where most of her biological family still lives, rather than wait for a hearing in a detention facility in the U.S.
“We were going to file an appeal to get her released to home, but Mirna said she wasn’t sure she would survive the wait for that,” Jones said. “It can be months, and she didn’t think she could handle that.”
Laura said her mother told her during a 3 a.m. phone call from the Louisiana facility that, “She couldn’t handle being [there] anymore.”
“I know my mom, she is a really strong person,” Laura said. “If she’s telling me that, I’m going to be concerned.”
Laura learned late Tuesday night that her mother and one other detainee had been taken from the Louisiana facility to the airport, presumably to board a flight to El Salvador—but that’s all she knows.
“I really don’t know much about my mom right now,” she said.
This story was updated on December 17 at 6:48 p.m. to include a quote from Rep. Eugene Vindman.
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Such backwards (shall I dare say Nazi-like) treatment of long-term immigrants who pay their US taxes and are productive community members, is wrongheaded and destructive of the US economy.
Agree with the comment above. This is shameful and not how the United States of America treats its citizens. May we soon return to civility and respect for our immigrants and allies.