The mother and two children in a Portland family who were arrested by federal immigration officials in November have been released, but another family member remains in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to their attorneys.
Carine Balenda Mbizi, and her children, Joel Andre and Estefania Andre, were released this week, attorneys who represent the family said in an email. They were being held at an ICE facility in Texas.
Mbizi’s adult daughter, Olivia Mabiala Andre, 19, remains in custody, according to the attorneys at Boston-based Rubin Pomerleau PC.
An immigration judge ruled in February 2024 that Mbizi had to leave the United States after she and her family illegally crossed the border near San Luis, Arizona, in 2022, according to a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The family filed an appeal, which was dismissed on Oct. 31, 2025.
The family was arrested by federal immigration officials at the Champlain, New York, port of entry on Nov. 12 after they sought asylum in Canada, according to Border Patrol. The family is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Joel, 16, had been attending Deering High School and Estefania, 14, was attending Casco Bay High School, according to Portland Public School officials. Joel is on the Deering boys’ soccer team and a highly regarded member of the Kennedy Park Pickup Soccer group.
More than 500 Portland high schoolers staged a walkout after their arrest.
Mbizi was being held at a facility in Dilley, Texas, with Joel and Estefania. In the days after their arrest, a friend of the family told the Press Herald that Mbizi was having trouble contacting Olivia, who was being held at a facility in New York.
Attorneys for the family say that Olivia has since been moved and is now being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, but in a separate section from where her family members were being held.
The government filed a notice of intent to remove on Feb. 4, the attorneys said, and the family was to be deported by Feb. 11.
The attorneys filed several motions in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the family in the country. They insisted that the release of Mbizi and the two high schoolers was required under the Flores Settlement Agreement.
“Under the FSA, the government must release minor children from immigration detention without unnecessary delay and place them in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their age and needs,” attorney William Sewell-Fernandez stated in an email Wednesday night. “We argued that the continued detention of (Mbizi) and her minor children for more than thirty days was inconsistent with the purpose and framework of the FSA, particularly because a viable U.S. citizen sponsor was available and prepared to receive them immediately.”
The FSA does not apply to Olivia Andre because she is not a minor, Sewell-Fernandez said, but they are still attempting to secure her release.