Carla Medina was released from the immigration detention facility in Aurora on Monday, almost eight months after the Honduran mother of two was first detained while attempting to deliver a DoorDash order to Buckley Space Force Base.
Her release was confirmed by Medina’s husband, Pablo Acosta.
“To tell the truth, I feel very nervous, happy,” Acosta said in Spanish through a translator. “I can’t believe it, still, that this has happened.”
Medina won her asylum case in May. But because the federal government reserved the right to appeal on a single issue, she remained in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through Monday.
She and her family first sought asylum in the United States in 2023, with Medina specifically saying that she feared domestic violence and threats made by her ex-partner in Honduras.
During the asylum process, Medina was picked up on Oct. 23 by ICE agents who arrived at Buckley’s entrance after she had approached to drop off a food delivery order. Medina said she had her work permit at the time.
A crowd of about two dozen people gathered at the ICE facility in May to call for her release.
Immigration-focused organizations that worked with both Medina and Acosta throughout the process are celebrating her release.
“It is a community win to have Carla free,” said Andrea Loya, the executive director of Casa de Paz. “She should not have missed all that time away from her kids. We are so happy to know that she will get to hug them tonight and put them to sleep.”
Jennifer Piper, the program director at the American Friends Service Committee, said, “The dedication of her husband, Pablo, and the support of community made a huge difference in her case.”
To her, “it vindicates what we’ve been saying all along,” Piper said. “So many do have life-threatening reasons why they (fled) their country of origin and that they trust us as a country to respect their human rights.”
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