Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old woman from Congo who remains detained in ICE custody in Texas despite her family\u2019s release in March, said she was \u201cin shock\u201d and overjoyed about a judge\u2019s order for her release by Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it. I started crying, shaking,\u201d Andre said Thursday in her first interview since she learned about the judge\u2019s order. She has been detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas for about six months. \u201cI was so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, a federal district court in San Antonio ordered Andre\u2019s release from the facility no later than Friday, according to court documents. The court found that Andre\u2019s right to due process was violated and that her detention was unlawful. She will join her mother, brother, 16, and sister, 14, in Maine upon her release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre said she quickly called her mother to tell her the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had a lot of emotion at the same time. I just remember telling her, \u2018Mama, I\u2019m coming home,\u2019\u201d Andre said, her bright smile beaming. Her mother was so overcome with emotion that she began to scream with joy. Soon, her sister heard the news and joined her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there were still fears the news could be too good to be true, Andre said. She called her mom late Wednesday to be sure nothing had changed, just in case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPart of me was worried, scared about being detained for a long, long time,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people have been waiting months and months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A federal appeals court has blocked the family\u2019s deportation for now \u2014 a ruling that includes Andre \u2014 as it reviews their asylum case, a process that could take months or longer, said Elora Mukherjee, an attorney who represents the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and the director of its Immigrants\u2019 Rights Clinic, said Andre and her family should never have been detained. \u201cIt is unconscionable that ICE detained Olivia for six months and continues to detain her today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe federal court ordered Olivia\u2019s release because the Trump administration had no lawful basis for detaining her,\u201d she said. \u201cShe needlessly suffered in detention for six months in violation of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s protections. Her mental and physical health deteriorated during this time because she did not have access to sufficient clean drinking water, palatable food or appropriate medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement that \u201cthe facts of this case have not changed; Olivia Mabiala Andre is an adult illegal alien with a final order of removal and no right to remain in the United States. Despite receiving full due process, this activist judge is releasing an illegal alien onto American streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnder President Trump, DHS will continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country,\u201d the spokesperson said, adding that if a migrant is found to have \u201cno right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers, including Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and children\u2019s entertainer Ms. Rachel, had called for Andre\u2019s release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre and her family fled repression and torture in Congo and suffered the tragic death of her 8-year-old brother on their journey to America in 2022, according to court documents and their attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family filed for asylum as a unit after they came to the U.S. in December 2022, when Andre was a minor. She is still considered part of their asylum application, which is under review by a federal circuit court. In the months before their detention in November, the family\u2019s asylum case and an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals was denied, according to the family and DHS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The denial led the family to seek refuge in Canada, instead. But because of an agreement between the U.S. and Canada, asylum-seekers and refugees are required to seek protection in the first \u201csafe country\u201d they arrive in. For Andre and her family, the Canadian government considered the U.S. to be that first safe country, and they were sent back. That was when federal immigration authorities arrived and detained Andre separately as an adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre\u2019s mother and siblings were sent straight to the Dilley detention center, which has come under scrutiny over allegations of its treatment of children and families. Andre was moved between detention facilities for about two weeks before she was also sent to Dilley and kept in a separate section for single adults. They were reunited when Andre heard her younger sister shouting her name from the section where families are held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family were eventually allowed brief meetings with one another, until ICE granted a parole request for Andre\u2019s mother and two siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carine Mbizi, Andre\u2019s mother, said being released without her daughter has further traumatized her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t think to get out of there and to leave one of my daughters behind me. I have already lost one of my children on our way to the United States. I never recovered from that, and I\u2019m going through a lot of pain when I\u2019m thinking about the fact that Olivia was left behind,\u201d she said earlier in the Lingala language through an interpreter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A DHS spokesperson previously said, \u201cCarine Mbizi, the mother, and her minor children have been released from ICE custody pending their removal from the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDHS is working rapidly and overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination \u2014 home,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CoreCivic, the company that operates Dilley under a federal contract, said in a statement that it doesn\u2019t enforce immigration laws, have any say in a person\u2019s deportation or release or know the circumstances of people placed in its facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mbizi was a political dissident in Congo who participated in peaceful protests against the government and sought asylum in the U.S. after she was \u201cbrutally assaulted in retaliation for her political protests,\u201d Mukherjee said. She was also witness to human rights abuses committed by the regime and, after she spoke out, was subjected to sexual violence and \u201ctorture that almost killed her,\u201d Mukherjee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre said that at one point on their journey through South America, while they were crossing a river with strong currents, she saw her 8-year-old brother being swept away, according to a psychological assessment conducted by a licensed social worker and included in calls for her release. Andre said in the assessment that she has \u201crecurring nightmares about watching him die and not being able to save him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family later settled in Maine, which has a Congolese community, and her mother found work while she and her siblings went to school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre graduated from high school a year and a half early and completed a program to become a certified nursing assistant, Mukherjee said. She was in her first year of college to become a nurse before ICE detained her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When she found out she wouldn\u2019t be going home with her mother and siblings in March, Andre said, she tried to be strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the next day, \u201cI cried a lot. I screamed a lot,\u201d Andre said last month. The brief visits with her family that had kept her going were now gone. \u201cI just started feeling an empty space in my heart again, the same pain that I felt when I lost my little brother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre said Thursday that what will stay with her the most from her six months at Dilley was the importance of her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter here, I\u2019ll have to spend more and more time with them. Because we never know what kind of thing can happen,\u201d she said. \u201cI never imagined that I would be here, so far from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said that when she called to tell a friend about her release, all of her friends had already heard the news. They all plan to meet her at the airport and throw her the graduation party that she was unable to have because of her time in detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the first things she wanted to do upon her release were to hug her mom and siblings again, see her friends and have something she has long been craving \u2014 mango juice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I can have that feeling to have my own choice again, to have something I wanted to have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre said she can\u2019t wait to see her friends and go to her favorite spots in Maine, look at the trees and be by the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to be in front of the water and maybe scream, \u2018I have freedom,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n