An Ecuadorian woman who was taken by ICE agents from her South Burlington home last week was released from custody on Monday after a federal judge ruled there was no good reason for her detention.
“This is not really contestable,” District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said from the bench.
Jisella Johana Patin Patin, 31, walked into her husband’s arms following the hearing at U.S. District Court in Burlington, then through a crowd of hundreds of supporters who were gathered outside the courthouse.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Patin Patin and two others during their raid of her Dorset Street home last Wednesday. Agents were looking for a Mexican man who they believed had fled them earlier in the day. But after obtaining a search warrant and pushing through activists who had blockaded the front door, agents did not find the man inside. Instead, they arrested Patin Patin, her sister, Daysi Camila Patin Patin, and a third person, Christian Humberto Jerez-Andrade, for entering the country illegally.
The sisters entered the U.S. through the southern border in 2023 and have pending asylum claims. Attorneys for all three quickly filed court petitions for their release.
Johana Patin Patin’s was the first to be heard. She arrived in court wearing a fleece zip-up with a teddy bear pattern and her reddish-brown hair in a bun.
Her attorney, Kristen Connors, called three witnesses to testify to Johana Patin Patin’s ties to the community — and to her two daughters, ages 4 and 8, who go to school in South Burlington. A South Burlington School District administrator testified, as did two people who work at The Janet S. Munt Family Room, a Burlington center for immigrant parents and their children. The Family Room staffers each described Johana Patin Patin as an engaged and nurturing mother.
Johana Patin Patin served on an advisory committee for the organization and helped translate materials for Spanish-speaking families, the witnesses said.
“She is beloved by our community,” staffer Emma Gonzalez told the judge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Greer represented the government. He did not speak to the circumstances surrounding Johana Patin Patin’s detention or why it was necessary. Greer reiterated the government’s position that people living in the U.S. who illegally crossed the border are subject to detention. He also acknowledged that judges have repeatedly disagreed.
Crawford elected to release Johana Patin Patin immediately, in what he said was a shift from his approach in previous cases. Her case was so “clear,” he said, that there was no need to wait for a separate bond hearing at an immigration court.
“Ms. Patin Patin has done nothing of concern to us and has done much to deserve her community’s support,” Crawford said from the bench.
The ruling did not address whether her detention was unlawful in the first place, something her attorney, Connors, said remains important for the court to consider.
“The fact that someone broke down the door to her home and detained her using a warrant that did not have her name on it — that’s a big constitutional violation,” she said. “That can’t keep happening to people.”
Connors said she would discuss with her client whether to pursue a ruling on the alleged constitutional violation.
Johana Patin Patin had more immediate concerns. She and her husband cried together in the hallway after the hearing. Johana Patin Patin then approached her sister’s attorney to ask when she might be released.
Her sister’s hearing had not yet been scheduled, as of noon. A hearing for Jerez-Andrade was set for 2 p.m. Monday.
This story will be updated.
