An armed Department of Homeland Security agent. (Robert P. Alvarez/Shutterstock.)
The family of a woman detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite breastfeeding a 1-year-old U.S. citizen said it’s been living a “nightmare” as the woman from Colombia — in the United States with a pending asylum application — has been transferred across the state and away from her two children for a week.
Yury Ussa Polania, 43, of Winter Park, Fla., filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus on Monday after being taken into custody by ICE on Sunday following an arrest on May 2 for a “non-violent misdemeanor” involving petty theft, according to court filings and arrest records.
She filed an emergency temporary restraining order on Friday, according to Jay Bar-Levy, a paralegal for Ussa Polania's lawyer, Daniel Perez, in Gainesville, Fla.
Stefany Garcia Izquierdo, 34, told Raw Story that the family is “100 percent” worried about Ussa Polania being deported despite what Ussa Polania argues is her “lawful presence” in the U.S. and “irreparable harm” to her young child, a U.S. citizen.
“That’s my main thing, the kids,” said Garcia Izquierdo, a preschool teacher. “I have kids. I’m a mom. Mother’s Day’s coming up. It takes a lot. It’s sad.”
Ussa Polania is the mother to an 11-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, according to Garcia Izquierdo, who is the cousin of Ussa Polania’s husband, Cristian Correa Izquierdo.
Correa Izquierdo declined to comment.
Garcia Izquierdo is helping to take care of the children alongside Correa Izquierdo and his sister-in-law.
“[The baby] just keeps crying, ‘Mama, Mama, Mama,” Garcia Izquierdo said. “She’s only 1. She's not even walking.”
A first birthday party scheduled for the little girl on May 3 was canceled as the family tried to get Ussa Polania out of Seminole County Jail in Sanford, Fla., where she was booked on May 2 for charges related to petty theft with an estimated value between $100 and $750, according to Frances Matos in the booking department at Seminole County Jail and an arrest report from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office shared with Raw Story.
Garcia Izquierdo shared a receipt with Raw Story showing Correa Izquierdo paid his wife’s $500 bond on May 3. He waited for her in the parking lot, but she was never released, Garcia Izquierdo said.
Ussa Polania “left with ICE” on May 4, Matos said.
Bar-Levy said there was a "misunderstanding at a Walmart for $34."
Ussa Polania’s latest known whereabouts is Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, Fla, according to the jail’s online locator and ICE’s online detainee locator.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office’s website shows Ussa Polania was booked on May 6 at 3:37 p.m. and remains in custody.
Bar-Levy said Ussa Polania is being pressured to sign a voluntary deportation agreement.
“She's not deportable yet because she has a pending application for political asylum,” Bar-Levy said. “This is a flagrant violation of her due process rights. You don't do that. We're not in a third world country where they pressure people to sign their rights away.”
The Orange County Corrections Department in Orlando told Raw Story on Wednesday Ussa Polania was being detained at Pinellas County Jail but did not confirm if she was ever held by the Orange County Corrections Department.
The public information officer declined to provide comment from the warden, named as a respondent in Ussa Polania's petition and said they were “unable to provide information about ICE inmates” due to federal law.
Garcia Izquierdo said Ussa Polania informed her of her transfer to Orange County on Sunday and said for eight hours Ussa Polania allegedly was without water and “sitting on a chair, waiting and waiting for ICE to come and get her to go through all the papers because there was no police file.”
“She’s saying she feels very weak,” Garcia Izquierdo said. “She’s not eating good."
Garcia Izquierdo said Ussa Polania told her on Monday that an inmate was allegedly smoking marijuana near the area she was being held, and “they searched her. Everybody got naked in front of each other.”
“She's like ‘this is horrible. I'm not a criminal. I made a mistake and look at how far this mistake is going,’” Garcia Izquierdo said. “The way that they are treating her. She's like, ‘It's not fair.’”
The Orange County Corrections Department did not respond to Raw Story’s questions Friday about Ussa Polania’s alleged treatment.
Orange County Corrections Department referred Raw Story to ICE’s Miami Field Office, which did not respond to phone calls. ICE headquarters did not respond to Raw Story’s emails.
Garcia Izquierdo said she’s working on handling Ussa Polania’s daughter’s one-year check-up at the doctor and is hoping Ussa Polania will be released before her daughter’s baptism on May 24, when family will be coming from Colombia on tourist visas.
In her petition, Ussa Polania challenges her “continued detention” and says she is both the mother of a U.S citizen child and holds “valid work authorization through 2029 pursuant to her pending application for asylum and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).”
Garcia Izquierdo said the family was being extorted by various people in Colombia since they had a business, which is why they worked with a lawyer to seek asylum before coming to the United States.
“They got to the point they're like, ‘We have to leave,’” Garcia Izquierdo said. “They’re like, ‘If you don’t give me money, I’m going to kidnap your kids,’ and this and that. That’s why they got the asylum here.”
The filing names as respondents, Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security; Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General; Pete R. Flores, Acting Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection; ICE; the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Warden of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Garcia Izquierdo said the situation has been “too much” and “embarrassing” for the family.
"For $34, look how hard she's been going. This is a nightmare," Garcia Izquierdo said.
In her petition, Ussa Polania said she faces “imminent transfer to Texas.”
“If they move her, we’re screwed. I don’t know what’s going on,” Garcia Izquierdo said.
