Vietnamese mother released after 154 days in ICE detention

A Maryland woman separated from her four children for 154 days under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign reunited with her family last week after a federal judge found immigration officials made false claims to justify her detention.

What happened: Mong “Melissa” Tuyen Thi Tran, 43, was detained the day after Mother’s Day and transferred across facilities in Louisiana, Arizona and Washington state before her release. She owns a nail salon in Hagerstown with her husband Danny Hoang and had reported to ICE for more than two decades without incident before being taken into custody.

Tran arrived in the U.S. in 1993 as an 11-year-old refugee from Vietnam. At age 20, she committed forgery and larceny by taking money from her employer, which she said happened because of an “abusive and manipulative” boyfriend. She served four months behind bars and made full restitution, but an immigration judge still ordered her deportation in 2003. Vietnam, however, declined to accept her return based on a rule barring deportations of individuals who left the country before July 12, 1995. After being released under supervision, Tran built a new life in Washington County with Hoang. They opened Nail Palace and Spa, raised their children and she earned a reputation as an involved swim team parent.

Reunited, at last: On Oct. 13, U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright ruled that Tran must be freed immediately, determining that immigration officials had provided “false and misleading” information while making no actual progress on deportation over five months. “To touch their face and hug them, I just felt so emotional,” she told the Baltimore Banner of her family. Her months-long detention sparked widespread community mobilization, including a 200-person rally and fundraising for legal costs, with supporters writing letters to Trump administration officials. Despite the ruling, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the department would “continue to fight for her removal,” labeling Tran a “criminal illegal alien.”

Why this matters: Tran’s experience illustrates how the Trump administration’s deportation campaign has targeted established Asian American residents over old, nonviolent offenses. Vietnam has historically refused to take back deportees from the U.S., though it made an exception during Trump’s first term, and there have been multiple reports of nationals sent back this year. Jennie Pasquarella, one of Tran’s attorneys, told Newsweek that her case “highlights the lack of fairness in the immigration system,” noting authorities allowed someone to build a life spanning more than 20 years before seeking to deport them “without any consideration” of their rehabilitation or community ties.

Tran’s legal team is filing a challenge to the deportation order in immigration court this week.