Florida family says mom shackled, denied medication, translator in ICE detention

Yahoo

a day ago

A 52-year-old woman from Live Oak was detained after a check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tallahassee. Now, her daughter says she's been handcuffed and shackled by the ankles, and is being denied a translator and medication for her diabetes.
On June 3, Maria Isidro thought she was going to check in with immigration in Tallahassee, an 82-mile drive, to talk about her case. At least, that's what ICE told her.
She thought to herself, "Maybe they need more paperwork?" Since arriving to the United States from Mexico in 1998, she has never missed an immigration check-in, and she was approved for an I-130 – a "petition for alien relative" – in 2023.
When she arrived, however, she was detained. Even though she has applied and been approved for a "stay for deportation" every year since she received an order for removal in 2004, ICE officials took her belongings and only gave her a few minutes to call her husband to tell him what was happening.
"That's when our nightmare has started," said her daughter, 31-year-old Vanessa Isidro-Gonzalez. Requests for comment are pending with an ICE spokesperson.
"Every time she would go to an appointment, she would pray about it. But ... we're humans, we have flesh, we have bones, we have feelings. We were scared. Probably in our hearts and our minds, we knew this was going to happen," Isidro-Gonzalez told the USA TODAY Network – Florida.
Over the week after she was detained, Isidro was transferred to Orlando and then to Broward Detention Center in Pompano Beach, where she called her daughter crying.
Law enforcement shackled her – ankles to hips, and hips to wrist – and she spent the night in a bus with other detainees. When they would ask for air conditioning, law enforcement would blast cold air until it was freezing, Isidro-Gonzales said. When the detainees said it was too cold, law enforcement would then crank up the heat.
"Her feet hurt, her ankles hurt, her wrists, her hips were hurting, and they were bruised from where (the immigration officers) have been pulling on them. She has not been receiving any medication. She only received it one time, and it was insulin, something that she's never done before," Isidro-Gonzalez said.
Her mother said when she asked for a translator, a law enforcement officer told her, "You should know English by now."
Isidro is now being transferred to Texas, where many detainees go to be seen by a judge and then booked on a flight for removal. Immigration lawyers generally say it's because judges in the Lone Star State are known to be "tougher," and it's closer to the U.S.-Mexico border.
It also makes it harder for legal counsel, who have to refile paperwork every time a detainee gets moved to another federal jurisdiction.
As previously reported, federal agents executing President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans have quickly escalated their efforts.
In May, officers began to detain immigrants while they were leaving mandatory court appearances, as the White House gave ICE agents new powers to detain and deport people when they show up for those court hearings as long as they arrived in the United States within the past two years.
Isidro, however, has been in the U.S. for almost 30 years. She and her husband came to the United States after doctors in Mexico said they couldn't treat their oldest daughter's medical condition and told her one of the best hospitals was in Houston, Texas.
"Mom has always told us, 'Whatever happens ... we have to be together, and we have to be united,' " Isidro-Gonzalez said. "She is the glue to our family. She's the one who does everything, and we just feel defeated."
There are several sets of ICE detention standards, but all require detainees receive "routine and preventive care, specialty care, emergency care, and hospitalization, as medically indicated," according to a 2024 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entitled "Medical Care Standards in Immigrant Detention Facilities."
All facilities that house ICE detainees are required to have some type of onsite health care clinic for exams and routine conditions. But according to the CRS report, this can vary from facility to facility.
"The conditions of her treatment have been horrific and traumatic for her and her family and those who live her," said Logan Hurst, a friend of the family.
Hurst, who calls Isidro "Nana Maria," has known her for five years. She said news of her detention has been an "eye-opening shockwave" to the Live Oak community, the county seat in rural Suwannee County.
Isidro, a nanny and the wife of a preacher, has taken care of Hurst's daughter since she was 8 weeks old.
She and other community members have started a campaign, "Bring Nana Maria Home!" They are urging people to call Florida's elected officials and advocate for Isidro's immediate release. Requests for comment have been made to state lawmakers who represent her area.
"Knowing that someone who loves and cares about people so much is being treated like not even a criminal, but an animal, is hard to fathom," Hurst said.
Jo Isidro, Maria's son, learned his mother was on her way to Texas on his birthday, June 11. He turned 23.
"When a mother like mine can be taken after doing everything right, really we should all be asking, what are we allowing? And who will be next?" he said in a statement.
"Let my mother's story be more than just a moment of sympathy," he said. "Let it be a wake up call."
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Live Oak woman shackled, denied meds after ICE check-in, family says