On April 12, Valentina ("Vale" to her friends and family) took a road trip to Florida, unaware of the current oppressive political climate in the state. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant in Florida, requiring all local officials to unlawfully act as immigration agents. Despite presenting evidence of her lawful status (she arrived legally as an au pair, and is pending a legitimate asylum claim), local police in Fort Lauderdale detained her and placed her on an ICE hold and into immediate deportation proceedings. Over the course of the next six days, she was moved seven times all over the state of Florida, each time to a different overcrowded facility. Finally, after 10 hours on a bus, wearing full wrist, waist, and ankle chains, she arrived at a Jacksonville jail (not meant to hold immigrants) that would be her hell for the next three weeks. During the total transport period, she was deprived of food and sleep for roughly 24 hours. In the cramped jail, she was forced to sleep on a plastic mesh net in a common area, subject to constant threats of violence, and deprived of basic human rights and human decency.

Vale was finally able to secure a video hearing with a Puerto Rican immigration judge on May 5, after more than three weeks of unjust and unnecessary detention. During the hearing, the ICE attorney argued, without support, that Vale would be a threat to others if released. If you've ever met the 4'11", 95-lb Vale, you would understand how ludicrous this argument was. Fortunately, the judge recognized this, ordering her immediate bond release.

Despite being released from confinement, Vale still faces significant hurdles. She needed to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to cover the legal fees necessary to secure her release and fight her deportation. The government continues to pursue her deportation, desperate to deliver on promised mass deportations. While she was detained, she lost wages, unable to work her job helping teens in crisis at a high school health clinic. Finally, she hopes to seek medical and psychological treatment for the cruel and inhumane circumstances she was forced to endure this past month.

In its zeal to deliver on mass deportation promises, our government is rounding up, detaining, and deporting good people like Vale. It is doing so irrespective of the constitutional right to due process. We can fight against this injustice and inhumanity by helping people like Vale push back against a system intentionally designed to inflict cruelty and pain. Please help her fight for justice and her freedom. Por favor ayuda, si puedes. Thank you. Gracias. God bless. Dios los bendiga.