Overview
- Federal immigration agents detained María Rosales and David Ardila at Boston Logan Airport when they tried to board flights, in arrests that took place on July 10.
- ICE says both were overstays and tied one case to a June 28, 2017 removal order, while the detainees’ attorneys say Rosales is a DACA recipient with a renewal pending and Ardila has a long-running asylum petition.
- Attorneys filed habeas corpus petitions challenging the detentions and U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin issued an emergency order preventing at least Rosales from being moved out of Massachusetts pending further court review.
- Both remain in ICE custody in Massachusetts facilities and family and lawyers report limited access and basic conditions that raise immediate relief needs; Rosales’s DACA renewal has been pending since September 2023 and Ardila’s asylum case dates back to 2017.
- The cases highlight a pattern of airport enforcement and slow immigration processing that can expose people with pending applications to arrest, and ICE has publicly pushed voluntary departure incentives while critics note gaps in the agency’s detainee location information.