A recent graduate of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing has been held in an ICE processing center in Basile, Louisiana, for the past six months following her arrest by immigration agents over the summer.
Vilma Palacios had just recently accepted a position at Touro Infirmary when ICE agents arrested her and transferred her to the processing center in Basile. Her detention comes amid a broader immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, including cases involving individuals with no criminal records who are seeking legal residency.
Palacios, 22, told Nola.com that she was denied release on bond and may be forced to voluntarily return to Honduras, the country she left with her parents at age six, while continuing to wait for a decision on her immigration case.
“The only thing now that I want is my freedom back,” Palacios told the outlet. “I don’t want to be enclosed in a space where everything is controlled. I have no power to do anything. I feel hopeless all the time. And nothing is moving to help me.”
Palacios said she applied for asylum as a child. She had previously been granted a work permit and had requested another when she was arrested in June. She does not have any criminal convictions.
According to Palacios, ICE agents arrested her on 26 June while she was attempting to obtain a routine vehicle inspection sticker. She said an unmarked vehicle pulled up behind her and agents approached and informed her that she was under arrest. Palacios said she did not know that her immigration case had been returned to the active docket.
She immediately sent two text messages to a former nursing school classmate, stating that she had been detained and was speaking with her lawyer. Her phone was taken shortly afterward.
Palacios said she has experienced emotional exhaustion during her months at the ICE processing center, adding that she does not have access to her personal belongings and spends her time in a shared dormitory with other detainees.
She also reported difficulties obtaining basic hygiene items, including shampoo and menstrual products. On some occasions, menstrual pads took up to a week to be provided after she requested them from officers, she said.
“On June 26, 2025, DHS law enforcement arrested Vilma Nicol Palacios-Fuentes, an illegal alien from Honduras,” Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said in a statement to Nola. “She freely admitted to being in the US illegally. She will receive full due process. To be clear, work authorization does not confer legal status.”
In a separate statement to Nola, DHS disputed claims about conditions at the detention facility. “This is the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives,” the statement said.
Family and immigration advocates have held protests calling for Palacios’ release, pointing to her involvement in the community and her commitment to nursing at a time of national workforce shortages.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
