Honduran transgender woman freed after a year in US detention

Nicole García Aguilar was granted asylum in October but was held another seven months while Ice appealed

Nina Lakhani
Fri 19 Apr 2019 14.51 BST Last modified on Fri 19 Apr 2019 16.55 BST

A Honduran transgender woman who was detained in a US immigration facility for seven months despite being granted asylum has been released after a legal challenge.

Nicole García Aguilar was freed from the Cibola County detention facility in New Mexico on Wednesday night, a week after lawyers filed a habeas corpus writ challenging her unjustified and prolonged detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

García’s ordeal, which included several stints in solitary confinement, highlights the ongoing arbitrary detention of asylum seekers under the Trump administration, which has triggered multiple legal challenges.

“In Ms García Aguilar’s case we forced Ice to review what it was doing to one person, but this is an out-of-control agency that refuses to follow the law unless sued. That’s not how government should operate,” said Kristin Love, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who filed the petition.

García, 24, fled Choluteca in southern Honduras in early 2018 after surviving a violent attack and receiving death threats which police refused to investigate.

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