DALLAS _ A flight attendant who grew up in Dallas was released Friday afternoon from an immigration detention center after six weeks facing potential deportation following a trip abroad for her job.
Selene Saavedra Roman, 28, flew to Mexico in February from Houston after her employer, Mesa Airlines, told her she could safely travel abroad because she is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Saavedra, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was detained the same day after the return flight.
On Friday afternoon, after news of her detention spread online, Saavedra was released from a lockup in Conroe, Texas, her husband said.
"She called me crying and said, 'Come get me,'" David Watkins told The Dallas Morning News on Friday afternoon. "I don't have anything official. But I'm driving to get her.
"It's the power of the media. The story got out, and I guess ICE thought they should do the right thing."
Before Saavedra's release, Watkins said he was worried about his wife's emotional state and whether the Peruvian native could become an American now.
"She's distraught and depressed," Watkins told the Morning News on Friday before her release. "I told her, 'If you get deported, I'll still be with you. We'll just go to Peru together.'"
Saavedra's attorney, Belinda Arroyo, told The Points Guy travel website that ICE wanted to revoke Saavedra's DACA status and deport her. Saavedra was born in Peru and entered the country illegally when she was 3.
"It really boggles my mind why the government would want to seek to continue to detain someone with no criminal history who was a graduate of Texas A&M and who was approved and on her way to citizenship but was held for what was obviously a mistake," Arroyo said. "But here we are, almost a month and a half later."
ICE confirmed Saavedra's detention in a statement. She was being held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe.
"On Feb. 12, Peruvian national Selene Saavedra Roman, 28, applied for admission to the United States without valid entry documentation. She was taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection officers and processed as a refused crewmember," ICE wrote. "Saavedra Roman is currently in ICE custody pending adjudication of her immigration proceedings."
It's unclear whether the government has made any determination regarding Saavedra's DACA status or if she still faces deportation.
Typically, Arroyo said, ICE would have made an exception for Saavedra because she is one of 700,000 DACA immigrants.
But because of President Donald Trump's plan to end the policy and the ongoing legal battle over whether he has the authority to do so, that type of exception may no longer apply.
A federal judge ruled in August that DACA, for now, can continue.
A hearing had been set for April 4 where Arroyo expected to argue before a federal immigration judge that Saavedra should remain in the United States.
Denise L. Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, said Saavedra's detention was likely legal, though "a terrible idea," under the DACA policy.
Gilman said DACA holds little legal value for its recipients. Although they get a renewable permit to live and work in the U.S., DACA provides neither a permanent status nor a path to a permanent status. Instead, she said, it's an admission from the government that an individual holds low priority for detention and deportation.
"DACA never provided a path to long-term stability for young people living in the U.S.," Gilman said. "That's why there's been such a push for Congress to create a pathway to permanent legal status for DACA holders. DACA is just a temporary reprieve from deportation."
Gilman said she has never seen a case like Saavedra's, but other DACA recipients have been successful in making a legal argument about the expectations of "Dreamers" under DACA, and the need for the government to show good reason to violate those expectations.
Saavedra's best option for citizenship, Gilman said, might be her marriage to a U.S. citizen.
Before the flight, Saavedra told her employer, Mesa Airlines, that she only wanted to fly in the United States.
She was worried leaving the United States would interfere with her DACA status and her path to citizenship. Her DACA status, which expires in November, means she has a Social Security number and pays taxes.
"She should be okay because it's part of DACA as long as it is not expiring," a supervisor at Mesa, which is based in Phoenix, wrote in an email, Watkins said.
Watkins said his wife was afraid she would lose her job if she didn't take the Feb. 12 flight. She is new and still on probationary status at Mesa because she had only worked there a month. The flight was the first time she'd left the United States since she was a toddler.
"I get to visit her once a week through 2 inches of glass. I can't touch her," Watkins said before his wife's release Friday. "The facility looks nice. But it's still prison."
Arroyo said Mesa should never have sent Saavedra to Mexico and that ICE should not have been detaining her.
"Sure, it was a huge mistake on her part to agree to do it, but it was also a huge mistake on the airline's part to advise her to do it," the attorney said. "But these mistakes don't change the fact that the administration is holding someone who's on DACA when it's clearly just a mistake."
The Association of Flight Attendants and Mesa Airlines had issued a statement Friday calling for Saavedra's release.
"We are deeply sorry Selene and her husband have had to endure this situation," said Mesa Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein. "It is patently unfair for someone to be detained for six weeks over something that is nothing more than an administrative error and a misunderstanding."
Ornstein said Mesa officials were doing everything in their power to ask for Saavedra's release.
Later, AFA President Sara Nelson celebrated Saavedra's release in a tweet:
"BREAKING: Solidarity wins! I just spoke to Selene's attorney, her husband is on his way to pick her up and @afa_cwa is heading there to provide support. She's been released thanks to everyone who raised their voice. More to come as we learn the details. THANK YOU! #FreeSelene"
