{"id":282571,"date":"2026-05-07T09:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/282571\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:02:24","slug":"chellie-pingree-calls-on-ice-to-free-portland-teen-detained-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/282571\/","title":{"rendered":"Chellie Pingree calls on ICE to free Portland teen detained in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\tOlivia Mabiala Andre, a 19-year-old Portland resident, is being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. Rep. Chellie Pingree talked to Andre for about an hour Tuesday, when she and other members of the House visited the center. (Courtesy Office of Rep. Chellie Pingree)<\/p>\n

Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, D-1st District, visited a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas on Tuesday to advocate for its closure and the release of a Portland teen being held there.<\/p>\n

Pingree and several House Democrats from Arizona, California and Texas visited the Dilley Immigration Processing Center where Olivia Mabiala Andre, 19, of Portland, and other detainees are being held.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing about the conditions that were humane and it is done with our tax dollars and in our name and it has to stop,\u201d Pingree said at a news conference in Texas following the visit.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers called for the facility\u2019s closure. Multiple people at the press conference described the conditions as \u201chorrific,\u201d from the separation of families to a lack of medical services.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Detainees held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley wave signs during a demonstration in January. (Brenda Baza\u0301n\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

They also took issue with children being treated as prisoners and receiving inadequate educational services. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said nearly 400 people are being held at the facility in Dilley, including 93 children.<\/p>\n

Pingree focused much of her time at the podium on Olivia Andre, whom she was able to meet with for about an hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been waiting two months to get her eyes checked because she has chronic headaches,\u201d Pingree said. \u201cShe has mental health issues, she doesn\u2019t like the food, she feels lonely and isolated and very much separated from her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivia Andre, her mother, Carine Balenda Mbizi, and two siblings, Joel and Estefania Andre, sought asylum in Canada but were denied and returned to the Champlain, New York, port of entry on Nov. 12 and taken into custody, according to U.S. Border & Customs Protection.<\/p>\n

According to Border Patrol, the family entered the United States illegally in 2022 and a judge ordered their removal in February 2025. They appealed that order, but were denied in October.<\/p>\n

The Portland family, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was eventually transferred to the facility in Texas, though Olivia Andre was kept in a separate part from her family members. <\/p>\n

Olivia Andre\u2019s mother and siblings were released and returned to Maine<\/a> in March. Ahead of their release, attorneys had argued that the mother and two high schoolers must be released from custody under the Flores Settlement Agreement. That agreement details several protections for people under 18 who have been detained by immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

But attorneys are still working to secure the 19-year-old\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s detainment received widespread attention as Joel Andre is a prominent member of Portland\u2019s soccer community and both he and Estefania were attending Portland schools. Within two weeks of their arrest, hundreds of Portland students demonstrated against ICE in front of City Hall.<\/p>\n

Following the release of the mother and siblings, advocates have focused on securing Olivia Andre\u2019s release and reuiniting the family.<\/p>\n

Maine children\u2019s YouTube star Rachel Griffin Accurso, popularly known as Ms. Rachel, has also called for Olivia Andre\u2019s release<\/a>, drawing national attention to her case.<\/p>\n

Pingree touched on the family\u2019s perilous journey to the United States at the news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wandered their way down through Brazil, came all the way up,\u201d she said. \u201cShe lost her 8-year-old brother in the crossing. He was drowned on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pingree also noted some of the children\u2019s accomplishments and their role in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cOlivia herself graduated from high school a year and a half early,\u201d Pingree said. \u201cShe became fluent in English very young, she\u2019s already gotten her CNA and she\u2019d started out in nursing home school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The congresswoman also read aloud a letter Olivia Andre wrote to her, part of which said, \u201cI still hold on to one thing: home. For me, home is Maine, especially Portland. Maine is where I felt safe for the first time in a long time. I want to feel safe again. I want to feel like I matter. I want to feel like I\u2019m not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pingree said she, the family\u2019s lawyers and many other advocates are \u201cgoing to continue to do everything we can\u201d to secure Olivia Andre\u2019s release. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut we all know, when we get her home, that\u2019s just one of so many young people who are locked up in facilities like this who don\u2019t belong there, and we\u2019re spending our tax dollars to do it,\u201d Pingree concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia Mabiala Andre, a 19-year-old Portland resident, is being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-282571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}