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ICE Grabs 'Dreamer' Flight Attendant

Selene Saavedra Roman is held for over 5 weeks
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 23, 2019 9:40 AM CDT
ICE Detains Flight Attendant
In this 2018 photo provided by Feldman Strategies is Selene Saavedra Roman. Selene Saavedra Roman, a flight attendant who traveled to Mexico for work with employment authorization through a program for immigrants brought to the country as children has been detained.   (Davo Watsui/Feldman Strategies via AP)

A Texas flight attendant who was enrolled in the government's program for "Dreamers" flew to Mexico for work and was stopped by immigration authorities who forced her to spend more than a month in detention, her attorney said. Selene Saavedra Roman, 28, who immigrated illegally to the US as a child, was released Friday from a detention center in Conroe, Texas, according to a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the AP reports. Originally from Peru and married to an American citizen, she raised concerns with Mesa Airlines about her immigration status after being assigned to an international flight, attorney Belinda Arroyo said.

The airline assured her she would be fine, but she was stopped by US authorities on Feb. 12, when she returned to Houston, and was sent to detention, where she remained for more than five weeks, Arroyo said. Soon after her lawyer, her husband, the airline, and a flight attendants' group publicly demanded her release, Saavedra Roman called to tell her husband she was getting out."She was crying and she said, 'Please come get me,'" her husband, David Watkins, told reporters. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency was looking into her status. Earlier, the agency said Saavedra Roman did not have a valid document to enter the country and was being detained while going through immigration court proceedings.

(More DACA stories.)

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