BOONE COUNTY, Ky. -- Family members of a Northern Kentucky woman say she’s being detained improperly by immigration officials and they’re worried she might be deported.
To make matters worse, officials won’t say where they're keeping Riccy Enriquez Perdomo, her family says.
"What they're doing is illegal. She's under a protected status and you can't just go and pick up people just because," said Enriquez’s brother-in-law, Robert Cole.
Agents with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detained Enriquez, 22, when she went to Louisville last week to bail out another person who was detained, according to her brother-in-law, Robert Cole.
While she was at the Louisville detention center, officials checked Enriquez's immigration status, Cole said. Cole said Enriquez believed she was protected in the United States under the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program (DACA).
President Obama created that program in 2012 to protect those who enter this country as minors. Enriquez moved to the U.S. from Honduras when she was just 9 years old, Cole said.
DACA allows certain immigrants to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit. But at least two others have been detained since President Trump took office. They were eventually released.
Cole said no one in the family has seen Enriquez since she was detained six days ago. In that time, she has been to at least four detention facilities: Boone County, Clay County (Indiana), the Chicago area and now a fourth secret location.
"They will not tell where it is located," Cole said.
Cole said Enriquez works for a local youth ministry.
"You don't have to fear her," he said. "She's not here doing anything illegally. She's done all the right things.
“Other than being brought as a minor into the country, she hasn't committed any crimes. She's worked," Cole said.
Enriquez’s attorney, Charleston Wang, said Enriquez’s family filed a petition in U.S. District Court in Covington to have her stand before a judge in order to challenge her arrest.
"I hope the court can see some irregularities of violations of due process and grant her some relief,” said Wang. "This would send a message to the executive branch, 'Hey, the courts are open. The Constitution is intact.' "
