What the judge saw wrong
On Monday, a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas agreed with habeas-corpus arguments by lawyer Javier Rivera that Stephanie Kenny-Velasquez's detention violated her constitutional right to due process. Rivera told the court that immigration officers swept her up during a routine check-in even though she had been paroled into the country in 2021 and had no criminal record. Federal judges, Rivera emphasized, operate under the U.S. Constitution, while immigration judges sit inside the Department of Justice's administrative branch. The ruling forced her immediate release from the Houston ICE facility.
The moment of reunion
Chris Busby, 28, waited outside the Houston detention center Tuesday clutching flowers and wearing "the biggest smile I could manage," he said by phone. When Kenny-Velasquez, 25, walked through the gate, the couple embraced for the first time since their December wedding, which had taken place two days before ICE agents detained her. "I just can't believe it," Busby said. "We've waited so long." Kenny-Velasquez said she remained in shock throughout the ride back to Austin, repeatedly asking her husband if freedom was real.
Life inside the dorm
Kenny-Velasquez shared a single room with roughly 60 women from Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Cuba, Vietnam, Russia, Romania and China. They slept in bunk beds, used a bathroom without doors on showers or toilets, and woke at 4:30 a.m. for oatmeal and bread. Final head count came at 10 p.m., after which many women lay awake gripped by panic. She endured multiple anxiety attacks and did not eat a single piece of fruit during her four-month stay. The oldest detainee she met, a 72-year-old Venezuelan woman, repeatedly went without needed medication.
Why she was taken in
She had presented herself to border agents in 2021, passed an initial asylum screening, and was released on parole while her case wound through the system. For four years she checked in with immigration officers as required. During one such appointment last December officers arrested her, claiming she was a flight risk. Government lawyers argued the same point at a Jan. 9 bond hearing, and an immigration judge denied release. Busby then sought Rivera, who filed the federal habeas petition that ultimately prevailed.
The legal road ahead
Kenny-Velasquez still has no permanent legal status. An asylum hearing is scheduled for 2027. Rivera is simultaneously pursuing two "parole-in-place" applications that could let her remain while the asylum claim is decided. "I don't really care which is successful as long as it's successful," Rivera said. A Department of Homeland Security statement said her claims "will receive full due process" in immigration court but added that "being in detention is a choice" and encouraged undocumented migrants to use the CBP Home App to arrange departure.
Survivor's guilt on the outside
Back in the couple's Austin apartment, Kenny-Velasquez cried thinking about the women still inside. "There's people with family, with kids. I feel bad because I'm here and they're still inside," she said. Busby, an Army Reserve Black Hawk pilot since 2015, calls the feeling survivor's guilt. He spent months contacting lawyers, reporters, former commanders and lawmakers, stunned that even his military service carried no weight in securing her release.
Small-town pushback on new centers
While Kenny-Velasquez was freed, plans for a 10,000-person ICE center in Social Circle, Georgia, appear to be on hold after the town cut water to the site. The one-million-square-foot warehouse, bought by DHS in February for nearly $130 million, would require one million gallons of water a day—matching the town's daily permit to pull water from the Alcovy River. City Manager Eric Taylor locked the meter, citing a 1962 sewage system already near collapse. Residents across party lines argue the project would triple the 5,000-person population and overwhelm the single grocery store, one high school and two-lane roads.
The sources also report that the DHS purchased the warehouse in Social Circle for nearly $130 million, which is more than four times its initial estimated worth.
What the pause signals
According to City Manager Taylor, DHS cancelled a scheduled meeting, citing a planned "department review of processes" under new leadership. The department also told the BBC it is pausing further warehouse purchases while the review continues. Construction contracts for the Social Circle site have not been awarded, and the facility was originally slated to open in April, but work appears to have stalled. Republican Representative Mike Collins, who backs ICE's mission, publicly opposed the location, saying Social Circle "does not have the sufficient resources."
The sources also report that this warehouse is part of a $38.3 billion DHS plan to open dozens of immigration detention centers across the US.