Aleyda Yeny Rodriguez, 47, was arrested Monday in East Palo Alto for having an expired visa. She has a blood disorder exacerbated by stress that causes fainting, and she fainted while being arrested by ICE agents. ICE agents were posted outside her hospital room at Stanford Medical Center and restricted family visits, even forbidding flowers with a note from her father. Stanford said clinicians provided all necessary care and later discharged Rodriguez to a federal detention facility in Bakersfield. The agency did not respond to requests for comment. Representative Sam Liccardo said Rodriguez will have phone access and criticized current immigration policy.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been posted at her hospital room since she was arrested with an expired visa Monday, and prohibited her family from visiting most of the week, even forbidding flowers with a notecard from her father. The agency did not respond to a request for comment Saturday morning, or earlier inquiries during the week.
Yeny's arrest, which may have been perfectly legal under existing laws, exemplifies the devastation and trauma that this deeply misguided and cruel immigration policy is wreaking throughout our country, Liccardo said in an interview Saturday. We need to persuade more Americans and the other half of Congress of the extraordinarily important role that millions of our neighbors like her play in our families and our communities.
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