Pregnant woman has been held for weeks following immigration lawyer scam, family says
Last month, Kelly Ocampo believed she received good news: Her 21-year-old pregnant sister had finally been granted bond and was going to be released from the family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas.
The letter she received from a lawyer to whom she had paid more than $3,000 was written on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement letterhead and stated that the ICE bond for Maria Alejandra Gomez-Quiroz was approved.
"This notice confirms that the immigration bond ordered by the Immigration Court has been successfully paid through an official payment method authorized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)," the letter stated.
When Ocampo received the letter, her sister had been in detention for a few weeks. But now, a month after she believed the bond was approved, her sister -- who is five months pregnant -- is still in federal immigration custody.
"It was a scam," Ocampo told ABC News.
Ocampo believes she was scammed by an individual posing as an immigration attorney, and said her sister has now been detained for over 40 days. Ocampo and her family spent all their savings on the alleged lawyer to try to get her sister released, she said.
ABC News reached out to the person Ocampo says claimed to be a lawyer, but did not receive a response.
Ocampo told ABC News that her sister and partner were fleeing violent guerrillas in Colombia and were planning on applying for asylum in the U.S.
Gomez-Quiroz was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol at the border in June.
She is one of at least 500 people detained at Dilley and one of four pregnant women being held there as part of the Trump administration's ongoing immigration crackdown, according to lawmakers.
Her detention comes as a federal district judge in California has ordered the appointment of a special master and independent monitor to examine "time in custody" at the Dilley facility to ensure that the government is complying with guidelines established in previous legal settlements.
Immigration lawyers have argued that the administration is detaining people longer than allowed by previous court settlements.
Immigrant advocacy groups have also said that arrests and detentions of pregnant women violate an ICE directive stating that the agency should not "detain, arrest, or continue to detain individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing" except under exceptional circumstances.
ABC News previously reported on a different 21-year-old pregnant woman who has been detained at Dilly for more than 50 days with her 2-year-old son.
Immigrant advocates, medical professionals and lawmakers have previously raised concerns about conditions at the South Texas facility.
The order from the California judge also calls for the special master and independent monitor to monitor compliance with "adequate access to medical care" at Dilley.
DHS officials have previously disputed any allegations of substandard medical care at the detention facility.
A spokesperson for DHS said Gomez-Quiroz was convicted of illegal entry on July 6 and stated that she remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of her removal proceedings.
In response to concerns from Gomez-Quiroz's family that she has been experiencing lower abdominal pain, a DHS spokesperson said, "It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment a person enters ICE custody."
"She's been very depressed," Ocampo told ABC News. "My mom is desperate ... this is a very hard situation.
