The last of the three migrants detained during an ICE raid in South Burlington walked free on Friday after nine days in prison.
A federal judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Camila Patin Patin, a 20-year-old woman from Ecuador, following an afternoon hearing.
Patin Patin stepped out of the federal courthouse in Burlington into a crowd of activists who had waited through a snowstorm to demonstrate their support. They chanted “¡Camila, no estás sola!” — “Camila, you are not alone” — as she walked outside.
Chief U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss granted Patin Patin’s plea that she be released immediately, though it had taken more than a week for that request to be heard in court.
Federal judges have now granted release to each of the three people detained during the chaotic ICE raid of a Dorset Street home that erupted into clashes between law enforcement and activists who sought to impede the raid.
The court decisions repudiate ICE’s decision to apprehend the noncitizens whom agents encountered inside the home while they were executing warrants for a different person whom they did not find. Following a similar hearing earlier in the week for Patin Patin’s older sister, Johana, District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled that ICE had violated Johana’s constitutional right to due process by detaining her.
The third person detained, Christian Jerez Andrade, was released Thursday on $10,000 bond following a hearing in a Massachusetts immigration court.
Jerez Andrade spoke to the activists gathered outside the Burlington courthouse on Friday.
“Without the support of all of you, none of this would have been possible,” he said through an interpreter with the advocacy group Migrant Justice. “I wouldn’t be here with you today.”
