The family of 24-year-old Giovanna Hernandez hopes she will be released on bond from a federal detention center in Louisiana. Leeds Police Chief Paul Irwin said she was detained by ICE officials after being stopped for reckless driving on Tuesday.
Giovanna’s attorney, Allen Shabani, said she is undocumented but has no criminal record. She was moved from the Pickens County Jail to the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana on Friday.
Shabani added that Hernandez, who came to the U.S. with her younger brother as an unaccompanied child at age 7, has the right to due process. She should be able to attend both a removal hearing and a bond hearing.
Her brother, Dilan Hernandez, said Giovanna was calm when they spoke by phone Tuesday evening after she was taken into custody.
“She was like, ‘I just want you to be there for Mom and Dad. I know they’re having a hard time, but I want you to tell them I’m okay and we’ll get through this,’” he said.
Dilan said they arrived in the U.S. in 2008, one year after DACA applications stopped being accepted.
He said his sister graduated as valedictorian from Leeds High School and earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in social work from Jacksonville State University. She had been working as an immigrant advocate for HICA.
“I want my sister to come home, and I want there to be a change,” he said.
Leeds Police Chief Paul Irwin said Hernandez was pulled over for reckless driving on I-20 Tuesday morning while driving a Honda Accord with tinted windows.
“She was driving up to 91 miles per hour on a road where the speed limit is 70, weaving in and out of traffic, and even tailgating a police officer in an unmarked car,” he said.
The only ID she had was a card from Mexico, Chief Irwin said. When it was clear she did not have a valid driver’s license, ICE was notified.
“We work with federal, state, and local partners to enforce the law. It’s terrible this happened to someone in our community who so many people care about,” he said.
After the stop, Hernandez was issued a warning.
A petition on petition.org has more than 9,400 signatures asking for her release from ICE. The petition also calls for a legal way for her to stay in the U.S.
Immigration attorney Hugo Valverde said Hernandez does have due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. But he said recent government actions have made it harder for people in her situation.
“The government is now arguing that people who entered illegally, even as small children, may not be eligible for bond or even allowed to present their case to a judge,” he said. “In my 20 years of practicing immigration law, I’ve never seen this before.”
