{"id":245186,"date":"2026-07-16T20:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/245186\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T20:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:31:20","slug":"advocates-fighting-to-free-jamaican-immigrant-from-ice-detention-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/245186\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocates fighting to free Jamaican immigrant from ICE detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advocates are demanding that federal immigration authorities release an Olney woman so that she can care for her sick mother.<\/p>\n

Constance L. has been behind bars at Moshannon Valley Processing Center<\/a>, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in central Pennsylvania, for the past seven months, according to the Shut Down Detention Campaign<\/a>. Organizers said she did not want her last name publicized, for fear of retaliation inside the detention center.<\/p>\n

A Jamaican immigrant and permanent U.S. resident, Constance was taken into custody after returning from Saint Martin, where she served time for possession of hemp, her immigration attorney said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has falsely accused her of being a marijuana smuggler and is withholding documentation proving that the substance in question was hemp, he claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are once again seeing this federal government lie and obstruct justice,\u201d said Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition<\/a>. \u201cThere is no reason for this woman to be in Moshannon other than to make profit off of her body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metro<\/a> reached out to ICE and DHS; the latter said more identifying information was needed about the detainee to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n

Constance\u2019s mother, a U.S. citizen, needs dialysis and intensive treatment for kidney failure and lupus, advocates said. Her daughter was her primary caregiver. When Constance was detained, she was taken to a nursing home but is set to be released later this month, according to a family member.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I should get deported, she would greatly suffer,\u201d Constance explained in a written statement read aloud Wednesday during a news conference outside City Hall. \u201cI promise to comply with any conditions or situations given to me. I would be more than happy to be able to work and take care of my mother again upon my release. I will hold to my word, and I will never mess up this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Constance said she is “greatly sorry” for the incident in Saint Martin. She immigrated to Philadelphia from Jamaica four years ago and has worked as a security guard. Rivera added that Constance is engaged to be married.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we talk to her, all she asks is about her family,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cShe’s always thinking about her mother, always thinking about her fianc\u00e9, always thinking about her cousins and siblings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two members of City Council \u2014 Rue Landau and Jamie Gauthier \u2014 showed up at Wednesday\u2019s event to support Constance\u2019s cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the thousands of others who are detained here in Pennsylvania and across the country, we are ripping and tearing families apart,” Landau remarked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not reasonable public policy,\u201d Gauthier said. \u201cThis is cruelty by design. This is Donald Trump’s mass deportation machine, and it is violent, and it is racist, and it is unjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: What to do if someone you know in Philadelphia is detained by ICE<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tJamaican immigrant,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t ICE detention,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Olney,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Immigration,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Moshannon Valley Processing Center,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t City Council,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Immigration advocacy\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Advocates are demanding that federal immigration authorities release an Olney woman so that she can care for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[990,60980,741,104960,104959,70825,11099,58619,69,71,70,743],"class_list":["post-245186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-city-council","tag-ice-detention","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-advocacy","tag-jamaican-immigrant","tag-moshannon-valley-processing-center","tag-olney","tag-pennsylvania-immigration-coalition","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}