Judge Orders Release of Teen Held Six Months in ICE Detention, Family Rejoices

Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from Congo, has been trapped in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas for half a year. On Wednesday, a federal judge in San Antonio declared her detention unlawful, ordering her release by Friday and affirming that her right to due process had been violated. The ruling means Andre will reunite with her mother and siblings in Maine, who were released months ago.

“I couldn’t believe it. I started crying, shaking,” Andre told reporters in her first interview since hearing the news. “I was so happy.” Her mother’s reaction was immediate and raw: screaming with joy upon hearing that her daughter would finally come home.

Yet Andre’s relief is tempered by the harsh reality that she suffered needlessly in detention. Her attorney, Elora Mukherjee of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, called the prolonged incarceration “unconscionable,” pointing to deteriorating mental and physical health due to inadequate food, water, and medical care. The judge’s order underscores the Trump administration’s flagrant disregard for constitutional protections and human dignity in its immigration enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security, doubling down on its hardline stance, dismissed the ruling as the work of an “activist judge” and insisted Andre has “no right to remain.” DHS vowed to continue aggressive removals of migrants, regardless of court decisions.

Andre’s family fled brutal repression and torture in Congo, enduring the heartbreaking loss of an 8-year-old brother during their journey. Their asylum claim remains under federal review, but the family was detained after attempting to seek refuge in Canada, only to be sent back under the U.S.-Canada safe third country agreement.

The Dilley facility, notorious for mistreatment of children and families, separated Andre from her mother and siblings, holding her in a separate adult section. Their eventual reunions were brief and fraught with trauma.

This case is emblematic of the systemic failures and abuses within the immigration detention system under the Trump administration—where legal rights are trampled, families are torn apart, and vulnerable people endure needless suffering. The fight for Olivia Andre’s release is a rare victory, but it exposes the urgent need for accountability and reform.

We will keep tracking this story and others like it because no one should be subjected to cruel detention or denied their constitutional rights in the land of the free.