A D.C. resident says she and her husband were detained by federal agents and taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after agents stopped them as they headed to work.
They both have active immigration cases, Raquel Sánchez told Telemundo 44. She was released after they were detained on Aug. 26. Her husband, Jesus Muñoz Colorado, remains in ICE custody.
ICE says they were living in the U.S. illegally and do not have “any pending visas to lawfully remain.”
Their encounter with law enforcement was caught on video. They were driving on 58th Street NE when their car was stopped.
Muñoz Colorado can be heard saying they’re going through the U visa application process. Sánchez said she handed the agents a G-28 form that her attorney gave her to notify officers that the couple had representation in an active legal process.
“They told me that it doesn’t matter,” Sánchez said in Spanish.
She and her husband were both put in handcuffs, and federal agents put them into an unmarked vehicle, she said, fighting tears. Video taken by a family member shows unmarked vehicles leaving the street.
Once they arrived at an ICE office, Sánchez said an agent told her she had an order of deportation, which she denied.
Her lawyer, Julia Toro, said Sánchez has never had an order of deportation in her file.
“My client had been in removal proceedings before and we had an asylum case pending for her for years, and last year she was permitted and the government agreed to dismiss her court case wanting to remove her,” she said.
Toro said the couple is not only going through a U visa process but also has an asylum process pending. Neither has a criminal record, she said.
“This couple, neither of them have any criminal arrests. They have no convictions. And they have no prior orders of deportation,” Toro said.
Hours after Sánchez was detained, she was released from Chantilly with an ankle monitor and a court date for late September.
Toro was set to submit a request for bond for Muñoz Colorado. He has a court date on Sept. 16.
His wife cried as she spoke about how helpless she feels.
“It hurts my soul not to be able to do anything,” she said.
ICE said in a statement that Sánchez and Muñoz Colorado were “released into the country without any lawful status. Illegal aliens now face a very real and imminent possibility of being encountered, arrested, and removed by ICE under a renewed commitment to law and order led by President Trump and Secretary Noem.”
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