Andre and her family are asylum seekers from Congo who settled in Portland, Maine. ICE detained them last November.
MAINE, USA — A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release a Maine teenager by Friday, according to Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree.
Olivia Andre, 19, of Portland, has been held at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, since November, a release from Pingree’s office said.
Elora Mukherjee, Andre’s lawyer, said the judge’s order requires her to be released by no later than May 8, according to Pingree’s office.
Andre and her family are asylum seekers from Congo but settled in Portland, Maine, according to Pingree. They were detained last November, but Andre’s mother and siblings were released from the detention center in March.
“I just spoke with Olivia. She is overwhelmed with emotion to learn that she will be coming home to Maine,” Mukherjee said. “Olivia and her family should never have been detained…Her mental and physical health deteriorated during this time because she did not have access to sufficient clean drinking water, palatable food, or appropriate medical care.”
Before her detainment, Andre was a first-year nursing student, according to Pingree.
