ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A husband and wife who practice real estate in Central Florida were reunited Thursday for the first time since they were detained by federal immigration agents in early January.
“She’s happy to be out,” said attorney Phillip Arroyo, translating for his client, Fadya Contreras de Rondon, as she spoke Spanish. “She’s shocked by the mistreatment she suffered while in custody for almost a month.”
U.S. District Judge John Antoon ordered Contreras de Rondon’s immediate release Thursday because he found that her arrest warrant was invalid.
Antoon raised issues with the authenticity of signatures on documents that were used to justify Contreras de Rondon’s initial detainment.
Contreras de Rondon and her husband, Johnny Rondon Rodriguez, were detained by federal immigration agents Jan. 9 while on their way to work in Ocala.
Judge Antoon ruled last week that Rondon Rodriguez had been unlawfully detained at the Orange County Jail and ordered his immediate release.
Rondon Rodriguez sat in the courtroom’s pews Thursday as his wife told Judge Antoon about her experience being detained. She recounted telling agents that she and her husband had valid documentation and had pending asylum cases. She said that an agent told her, “All that’s been voided.”
Contreras de Rondon explained that she was initially held at the Orange County Jail, before being transferred to the Broward Transitional Center and then brought back again to Orange County.
She told Judge Antoon that while in custody at the Orange County Jail, immigration agents shuttled her numerous times between the ICE ERO office on Delegates Drive and the jail, in an apparent effort to circumvent the 72-hour hold placed on ICE detainees.
Federal judges have scrutinized the re-booking practice. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings last week told ICE in a letter that the jail would no longer honor that practice.
“She said that they came into this country with great expectations,” Arroyo said. “They still have high regard for this country, but they’re confused about how they could have been treated this way despite having legal documents.”
Arroyo said that Contreras de Rondon and Rondon Rodriguez were given realtor licenses from the state of Florida.
Judge Antoon also Thursday ordered the release of a man who has been detained since late January, when he was picked up for overstaying a visa.
Junier Alexander Silva Parucho broke down in tears when he learned he would be released.
Antoon ruled that an arrest warrant used to justify Silva Parucho’s detainment was invalid.
In a separate case Thursday, Judge Julie S. Sneed held a status hearing on the case of Miguel Rincon Hernandez, who she ruled last week was entitled to a bond hearing before an immigration court.
Arroyo and his wife, Josephine Arroyo, told Judge Sneed that the sponsor for Rincon Hernandez’s asylum case had tried to pay the $5,000 bond online, but that ICE had not yet approved the payment.
Sneed said she was “concerned” by that development and ordered Rincon Hernandez’s immediate release, with the expectation that the bond payment will be processed by Friday morning.
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