{"id":71986,"date":"2025-07-18T06:56:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T06:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/71986\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T06:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T06:56:23","slug":"nyc-high-school-student-freed-from-ice-custody-endured-abysmal-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/71986\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC high school student freed from ICE custody endured abysmal conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 20-year-old New York City high school student<\/a> from Ecuador released from a federal detention facility endured a frightening saga of summarily being whisked away by ICE agents, forced to sleep upright in an overcrowded holding room and then sent off to Louisiana before ultimately winning her freedom.<\/p>\n

Her story echoes what critics of President Trump\u2019s stepped-up deportation campaign<\/a> have been saying: Asylum seekers who\u2019ve been told by judges they are safe<\/a> are being ambushed outside courtrooms, held in inhumane conditions and threatened with deportation despite fears for their safety in their home countries.<\/p>\n

Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema was among those who have managed to find her way home after a Southern District of New York federal judge order her release, slamming ICE for violating her rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE summarily detained Chipantiza-Sisalema pursuant to an agency policy of arbitrary detention without affording her notice or opportunity to be heard,\u201d Judge Analisa Torres wrote in the order<\/a> responding to a habeas corpus motion filed by her lawyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that [ICE\u2019s] ongoing detention of Chipantiza-Sisalema with no process at all, much less prior notice, no showing of changed circumstances, or an opportunity to respond, violates her due process rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chipantiza-Sisalema returned to New York on Wednesday after Torres ordered her release from the Richwood Correctional Center<\/a> over the weekend. Her release, first reported by The City<\/a>,\u00a0came roughly three weeks after her arrest at 26 Federal Plaza<\/a> following a routine asylum hearing.<\/p>\n

At the June 24 hearing, an immigration judge left the door open on Chipantiza-Sisalema\u2019s bid to stay in the U.S. to avoid persecution back home and gave her another court date. Nonetheless, federal agents, lying in wait outside the courtroom<\/a>, arrested her the second she stepped foot into the hall.<\/p>\n

Attorney Paige Austin with Make the Road New York<\/a> sued on behalf of Chipantiza-Sisalema calling for her release, arguing that her sudden detention violated due process since her case status hadn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n

She also argued she posed no flight risk and has no criminal record.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Ecuadorian immigrant, Maria Chipantiza, holds a photo of her daughter, Jocelyn Chipantiza, 20, who was taken into Federal custody last week outside Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on July 3, 2025 in Manhattan. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In her ruling,\u00a0Torres noted that Chipantiza-Sisalema was held under conditions that are \u201csubstantially worse than those imposed on criminal defendants following convictions for violent felonies and other serious crimes,\u201d and with \u201cfar less procedural protections\u201d than those convicts.<\/p>\n

Following her arrest, federal agents tossed Chipantiza-Sisalema into an overcrowded holding room on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza<\/a> where she slept upright on the floor for nine nights and was often \u201cextremely hungry\u201d due to inadequate food.<\/p>\n

ICE only allowed her three phone calls in the 10 days she was held in the lower Manhattan courthouse, with each call lasting less than two minutes. They would not let her contact any legal counsel.<\/p>\n

Stuck wearing the same red shirt and blue jeans she wore when she got arrested, Chipantiza-Sisalema was unable to shower or brush her teeth for the entirety of her detention. On July 2 she was flown more than 1,000 miles away to a Monroe, La., facility, where she was held until her release.<\/p>\n

\"FederalFederal law enforcement officers are pictured in the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on July 3, 2025 in Manhattan. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The young girl\u2019s family made an emotional plea for her release earlier this month outside the courthouse where she was held, saying her deportation would mean certain death.<\/p>\n

Chipantiza-Sisalema\u2019s parents and then 4-year-old brother fled Ecuador in 2022 after being \u201cnearly killed by individuals targeting the family,\u201d Torres\u2019 order states.<\/p>\n

Chipantiza-Sisalema, who was 16 years old at the time, took refuge at her grandparents\u2019 home in a different part of the country, but it didn\u2019t last. Eventually she too faced threats and fled the country, crossing the southern border in May 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complicated, but we came to this country to save our lives because it\u2019s very dangerous there,\u201d Chipantiza-Sisalema\u2019s father Marco Chipantiza, previously told reporters in Spanish. \u201cIt\u2019s very different with the gangs that [are] all over the country.<\/p>\n

Chipantiza, 40, said his daughter was pursuing her GED at RiseBoro Community Partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand these laws that led to the detainment of my daughter,\u201d the distraught dad said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why they are subjecting her to these conditions. I\u2019m begging the authorities to understand my situation, and the situation of many immigrant families who are here looking for a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 17, 2025 at 1:18 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 20-year-old New York City high school student from Ecuador released from a federal detention facility endured a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":71987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,2451,3059,5295,728,5249,20038,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-71986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-manhattan","14":"tag-neighborhood","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-new-york-county","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkcity","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-sub-county-region","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-of-america","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114872935318334087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}