Advocacy group: ICE tried to deceive detained woman trying to protect child

Immigration Customs Enforcement officials have retaliated against a woman seeking to be released from detention in Taylor to prevent her daughter from being abused, according to a news release from Grassroots Leadership, an immigrants rights advocacy group.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ICE officials told El Salvadoran asylum seeker Melvin Griselda Cruz-Lopez on Thursday that no appeal was filed in her case and that she should sign her own deportation papers, the Grassroots Leadership release said.

Her attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, however, filed an asylum appeal on her behalf to the Board of Immigration Appeals last week, the  release said. "Coercing a desperate mother seeking asylum to sign deportation paperwork while an appeal is in process with the Board of Immigration Appeals is unlawful and reprehensible," Lincoln-Goldfinch said in a statement from the release.

When Cruz-Lopez refused to sign the deportation papers, ICE officials "stated she would go crazy spending six more months there, like the other women do," the release said. Cruz-Lopez has been held at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor for more than a year. She was separated from her 5-year-old daughter Samantha, who is a U.S. citizen, when Cruz-Lopez's abusive ex-partner called immigration, the release said.

Cruz-Lopez's ex-partner, who is also the girl's father, has refused to share news about her with relatives or and has not allowed Cruz-Lopez to talk with her on the phone for more than two months, according to the release. The girl lives with him in Chicago and is believed to be in danger, the release said.

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"Instead of releasing this mother who is desperate to protect her U.S. citizen child, ICE has decided to deceive and intimidate her," said Sofia Casini, an immigration organizer at Grassroots Leadership said in a statement in the release.

ICE has the power to release Griselda and must do immediately," Casini said. Cruz-Lopez lived in the United States for more than 10 years before being detained, the release said.

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