The third and final person detained during a federal immigration raid in South Burlington last Wednesday has now been released.
Camila Patin Patin, a 20-year-old woman from Ecuador who was taken into custody after federal agents stormed her South Burlington home, walked out of the courthouse in downtown Burlington into a cheering crowd Friday afternoon after a federal judge ruled her detention was unlawful.
The search warrant that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used to enter Patin Patin’s home did not include her name, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss noted, yet they arrested her anyway. Reiss also indicated that Patin Patin is not considered a flight-risk or a danger to the community.
“She was detained based on a warrantless arrest that does not appear to have been lawful,” Reiss said.
Patin Patin’s release comes in the days after the other two detainees of the March 11 raid were also freed. Her older sister, Johana, was released by a separate federal judge on Monday. She sat in the third row of the courtroom’s gallery alongside friends and supporters and waved to her sister as she entered the room in handcuffs.
Federal immigration agents entered the Dorset Street home using a search warrant that named Deyvi Daniel Corona Sanchez, a 24-year-old man from Mexico who was wanted for illegally reentering the country after being previously deported. He turned out not to be inside.
Instead, agents detained the only noncitizens they found: the two Patin Patin sisters and Christian Humberto Jerez Andrade, a man from Honduras. Jerez Andrade was granted bond by an immigration judge in Massachusetts and was released on Thursday.
Soon after she was detained, Patin Patin’s attorney, Nathan Virag, filed a habeas corpus petition asking a federal court to review the legality of her detention.
In Patin Patin’s first appearance before the court, Reiss elected to hold a bond hearing and ordered that she be released, granting her habeas petition based on 5th amendment grounds that her due process rights were violated.
Reiss said she disagreed with recent rulings by the Board of Immigration Appeals under the Trump administration, which have reinterpreted existing statutes to vastly expand the pool of noncitizens who can be detained without access to a bond hearing.
“This was a sea change in immigration law,” Reiss said, and one her court would not abide by.
Patin Patin came to the U.S. in January 2023 at age 17 by wading across the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, court records show. Border Patrol agents apprehended her and classified her as an unaccompanied minor. After three weeks in custody, she was released and eventually joined her sister in Burlington.
Since then, she has lived with her sister’s family and helped to care for her two young nieces, who are 4 and 8. Judge Reiss noted that Patin Patin has not yet filed an application for asylum, which is required within a year of arriving.
But she did attend a prior immigration court appointment and has another scheduled for April 16. She intends to apply by then and has several exceptions to the timeliness rule that may apply in her case, her attorney said.
Two witnesses took the stand Friday to attest to Patin Patin’s character and ties to the community. Jaquelyn Reno, executive director of the Janet S. Munt Family Room, a parent-child center, said Patin Patin has helped care for children there and that she is “very nice, shy, but helpful.”
“I think she’s an important community member and she contributes to her family,” Reno told the court. “She’s a young woman just getting settled and has a bright future ahead of her.”
Miriam Ehtesham-Cating, director of programs for multilingual learners in the Burlington School District, told the court that Patin Patin had come to her office and enrolled in high school for a brief time on two separate occasions, but disenrolled in January due to family obligations.
She showed a strong desire to finish school, go to college and work as a veterinarian, Ehtesham-Cating said.
“It’s a testament to her character that she was not only willing to try this twice, but is still interested in pursuing her education,” Ehtesham-Cating said.
In a letter to the court, Patin Patin’s older sister Johana wrote that the sisters spend most of their time together “going to the Family Room, running errands, getting food, and taking care of the children.”
Her younger sister “has been a constant presence in our daily lives and someone I rely on,” she wrote.
After the judge’s ruling, the Patin Patin sisters hugged in the courtroom and cried together. Then they walked out of the courthouse and through a crowd that had gathered outside, holding signs that said “Free Camila” and “Abolish ICE Now.”
The supporters cheered, “¡Si se puede!” meaning “Yes, we can!” in Spanish as the sisters walked away in the snow.
