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CHELMSFORD — The New Bedford mother of three who is the only confirmed female immigration detainee from the city is being released on bond in a back-and-forth case that stretches back to early June.
Immigration Judge Natalie Smith ordered the release of Yury Melissa Aguiriano-Romero, 36, on $1,500 bond during a hearing in Chelmsford Immigration Court Monday morning. It comes less than a week after Judge Brian E. Murphy ordered the reversal of Smith’s earlier denial of bond.
Andrew Farrell, the assistant chief counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, waived an appeal at the hearing. It remains unclear as to when Aguiriano-Romero will be released.
During the hearing, Farrell said DHS sought to keep her in custody due to a 2023 denial of asylum as a derivative of her husband, Victor Emilio Murillo-Avila. He said an order of removal issued in February 2023 allowed her continued detention.
“We are not arguing [that she is] a danger to the community,” Farrell told Smith.
Aguiriano-Romero’s asylum case was reopened by the Chelmsford Immigration Court in July with her as the primary claimant and her husband and children being derivatives.
During the argument, Robin Nice, Aguiriano-Romero’s attorney, said Aguiriano-Romero followed the law and had been prompt to all her check-in appointments under the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. It was during one such check-in when she was detained by ICE agents in Framingham on June 3.
“She’s not a flight risk,” said Nice during the hearing. “She’s just a mom of three who’s eager to reunite with her three kids.”
Smith continued Aguiriano-Romero’s asylum petition to Aug. 20. Nice was not immediately available for comment.
Reversal of earlier decision
In her initial decision on July 17, Smith denied Aguiriano-Romero’s bond motion after determining that she had entered the country illegally.
The decision came in the aftermath of a memo issued by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons on July 8 saying that anyone who entered the country illegally was ineligible for bond. That memo was based on a May 15 ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals, the nation’s highest immigration court, in the Matter of Q. Li. That ruling stated those who enter the country illegally and are detained without a warrant are not eligible for bond.
“Based on the current law before this court,” Smith said at the time, “client remains ineligible for bond.”
Nice immediately filed a petition for release in U.S. District Massachusetts as a continuation of her habeas corpus case. A family friend initially filed that petition immediately after her detention. The move was intended to make sure ICE did not move Aguiriano-Romero without notice.
During a hearing at U.S. District Court Massachusetts in Boston on Aug. 6, Nice argued that since there was a warrant issued after her release by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2021, the law that applied was a different section of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Act than that cited in Q. Li.
“I’m not super confident they will grant a bond hearing,” Nice argued before Murphy, adding that it seemed immigration judges were being pressured to make decisions that aligned with the administration’s mass deportation goals.
Arguments also revolved around backlogs in immigration court. Chelmsford Immigration Court had been particularly hard hit by multiple rounds of firings and resignations that many suspect are related to federal policy. Only six of the 20 immigration judges that began the year at Chelmsford remain.
“At all levels of the immigration system, adjudicators are being advised to find people inadmissible,” Nice continued.
Murphy ordered the bond hearing and indicated that he would like a higher court to clarify existing law regarding detentions under the new regime.
“I think the process would benefit from some more guidance from a higher court,” he said during a hearing in Aguiriano-Romero’s habeas corpus petition at U.S. District Court Massachusetts on Aug. 6. “And to the extent that I am able, I’m willing to expedite that process.”
Case history
The mother of three, including one U.S. citizen born shortly after her arrival in the U.S., Aguiriano-Romero has said she was a youth organizer for the Partido Nacional in her native Honduras when partisans of the opposing Partido Liberal began to harass her and her family. According to documents filed in U.S. District Court Massachusetts, she was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions and her brother — another worker with Partido Nacional — was murdered.
In 2021, she and her husband, Victor Emilio Murillo-Avila, along with two children, came to the U.S. seeking asylum. Their original lawyer sought relief under the claim of Murillo-Avila. An immigration judge denied that claim in February 2023 due to insufficient evidence and ordered their removal.
Following the denial of their asylum claim, the couple was placed in ISAP, an ICE electronic surveillance program for immigrants awaiting court proceedings or deportation. They continue to insist that a return to Honduras would be unsafe for themselves and their children.
According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, ICE initially transported Aguiriano-Romero to the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office in Burlington, Massachusetts. In an affidavit filed as evidence, Aguiriano-Romero said she was given poor quality food, had to sleep on the floor with Mylar blankets, and had to share three sanitary napkins with 18 other women while menstruating — conditions U.S. District Court Judge Murphy called “abhorrent” during the June 13 hearing.
Kevin G. Andrade can be contacted at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org
In appreciation for all the dynamic detail provided in your well writ August 11 piece, thank you Kevin. It is useful and important for our community and individuals to grasp the context and help with protection of.
I’m a opponent of illegal immigration. But never take a mother from her children.
All thanks to the New ” ICESTARPO”.
No one to blame but Joe Biden and Maura Healey, no one should be in this country illegally. Biden is gone and the same has to happen to Healey.
Nobody is trying to permanently take a mother from children. She knew the risks when she came here. My old job provided me with ample opportunity to speak with many people in New Bedford illegally. Everyone knows the deal. They know the immigration laws better than most native-born citizens. Parents get stipends for each child in the school system, in addition to their other benefits. Kids as young as 13, probably even younger, are working in the fish houses. Most work is under the table. Lots of money gets sent back to the country of origin. Their food, housing, utilities, and sometimes transportation, are paid with funds the State of Massachusetts does not have, driving us further into the hole.
When someone is detained, they don’t detain the children with them. When she’s deported, they’ll hopefully just send the kids with the mother. The State is broke and housing is in short supply. Just building more does not work. New builds are almost all luxury buildings developers would rather sit on than sell or rent at a discount. The millions of people that poured into the country the past few years need to go. We don’t have the money or the space. Sob stories are propaganda designed to emotionally manipulate the reader.
The State is not broke.