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An immigration judge granted a pregnant New Bedford woman $5,000 bond Thursday after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained her on New Year’s Eve.
Authorities had already released Candelaria Natalia Tzunux Pu, 26, a day earlier following an emergency order from a judge at U.S. District Court Massachusetts after a medical emergency led to fears that she miscarried while in custody. Her lawyer, Ondine Gálvez Sniffin, told The Light that a medical examination in custody determined the pregnancy was still viable.
“We are relieved that Candelaria was released,” Sniffin told The Light in a statement. “She should have never been detained in the first place. She has followed the rules and complied with all her appointments with immigration court.”
Sniffin said she attempted to speak with Pu on multiple occasions during her six days in detention at the ICE Field Office in Burlington but never could. She said they began to worry about the baby after Pu’s father, a native K’iche’-speaker, told her in Spanish that he briefly spoke with his daughter and feared she had lost the baby while in custody.
An ICE spokesman did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The bond hearing and release resulted from a habeas corpus petition the same day ICE detained her, which prompted an immediate order preventing her transfer out of district and another order for a bond hearing. An Assistant U.S. Attorney did not contest the petition, citing the court’s recent decision in Morales v. Plymouth County Correctional Facility as reason to believe it would grant the petition on similar grounds.
The order for her release by Judge Allison Burroughs acknowledged that a “continued detention without confirmed medical treatment places Petitioner at risk of injury” and justified her release before the bond hearing at Chelmsford Immigration Court.
“It’s a shame that Candelaria and her family were put through a week-long nightmare fearing for her wellbeing,” Sniffin said. “But as long as ICE keeps violating people’s rights, we’ll keep fighting with the law on our side.”
Sniffin said that Pu, a Guatemalan mother of three and an asylum seeker with a valid work permit, theoretically has until her next hearing in 2027 to pay the bond. Sniffin said they may appeal as she sees the bond amount ordered as excessive.
Poor treatment
Sniffin said she spoke to Pu after her release and called her treatment at the hands of ICE abhorrent. She said her client informed agents of her pregnancy when they took her into custody. She said the agents did not believe her and made her take a pregnancy test at the ICE Field Office in Burlington.
At Burlington, a facility notorious for poor conditions, Sniffin said Pu slept on a mat and was locked in a cell with 12 women. She said that during Pu’s weeklong stay there she ate only one cup of oatmeal for breakfast and some fruit for lunch daily. Though offered other options, she said the smell of the food rendered her unable to eat it.
Overnight, she began to experience stomach pains and a fever and feared that she was about to miscarry or give birth prematurely, Sniffin said. Sniffin added that the next day another woman advocated for Pu. That prompted agents to take her to a nearby medical facility for an examination.
“She wasn’t allowed to talk to the doctor and the agents spoke to the doctor in English,” Sniffin said. “The agent told her she had an infection and that the baby was fine and she had to take antibiotics.”
Sniffin said ICE told her when they released her that she had to remain at home, a statement Sniffin called blatantly false. She added that her client is now scared to go to seek medical attention, which Sniffin implored her to do.
“I told her: you bring me the paperwork that they gave you for your hearing tomorrow,” Sniffin said. “And I will show you that, if it’s not on paper, what came out of their mouth was garbage.”
“They use words to scare people but they’re not willing to put it in writing because they know that what they’re saying is illegal.”
Initial arrest
Pu faces charges of assault and battery related to an arrest on Dec. 30. Her husband, Daniel Tzunux Pu, called New Bedford Police after she allegedly bit his arm during a dispute in their car, according to a police report.
Sniffin said that her client and husband had recently reconciled after a brief separation and that Candelaria acted in self-defense after her husband hit her.
ICE detained her the following morning after her release on personal recognizance at New Bedford District Court. Her next court date is in February.
Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org.
