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Delmy Palencia is a mother and leader of the Congress of Day Laborers in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was unjustly detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year, and is now facing deportation in retaliation for her civil rights work.

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Delmy's case illustrates how Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE)'s enforcement programs, such as the so-called "Secure Communities" program, hurt women, children and families.

Ms. Palencia was wrongfully arrested on a domestic violence charge which was later dropped. On May 21, 2011, Delmy Palencia was wrongfully arrested by the New Orleans Police after she locked her husband out of the house following a domestic argument. Ms. Palencia was then held in the Orleans Parish Prison for 45-days. During this time she was separated from her nursing baby and her husband, who called repeatedly to ask that the domestic abuse charges against her be dropped.

ICE used Secure Communities to place a hold request on Ms. Palencia and request she continue to be detained. After almost two months of criminal detention, all charges against her were dropped. Nonetheless, as a result of the Secure Communities program, ICE requested that the local Sheriff further detain her on an immigration hold.

In its cooperation with ICE’s Secure Communities Program, the Orleans Parish Sheriff violated the constitution and held Ms. Palencia longer than allowed by law. When the Sheriff held Ms. Palencia for more than 48 hours, a community coalition challenged her detention as part of a pattern of unconstitutional custody and secured her release.

After a community coalition secured her release, ICE conducted a night home raid to re-arrest Ms. Palencia, place her in detention without bond, and separate her from her infant U.S. citizen son. ICE’s targeting of Ms. Palencia for arrest not only separates her from her young child, it also chills future civil rights work.

Because of community support, ICE eventually released Ms. Palencia from detention and gave her a temporary reprieve, but Ms. Palencia still faces deportation.

Throughout history our women have taken to the frontlines of the fights for dignity. New Orleans is no exception. In the immigrant right and criminal justice movements women have played a crucial role in reminding us what incarceration does to our society. Despite being wrongfully arrested by the New Orleans Police Department during a domestic dispute and being separated from her infant son, Ms. Palencia — a mother, worker, and civil rights leader — stood up for her constitutional rights within the local jail, for her son’s rights to have his mother safely at home, and for the civil, labor, and constitutional rights of her community. Delmy, like all mothers, deserves the right to remain with her family.