SUNRISE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Venezuelan woman with temporary protected status is sharing her story after she was detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held at two of the agency’s South Florida facilities for nearly three weeks.
Claudia Rodriguez opened up about her ordeal on Monday during a news conference held at the Sunrise office of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.
Rodriguez said she was detained by ICE agents at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport while trying to catch a flight to North Carolina back in July.
She said that what she witnessed was inhumane, indicating that many of the people she was detained with, some of whom have cancer, did not receive the necessary medical care.
Rodriguez was released from the ICE facility in Miramar on Monday afternoon and is now back with family. She told reporters that she is not sure what the future holds.
“I do not feel safe. I do not feel safe because I have also heard stories that people have gotten out and taken back again by not doing anything. They’re just being taken,” she said.
Rodriguez has been in the U.S. with her family since 2017 when she arrived from Venezuela. She had a visa and later received TPS.
Her attorney was able to secure her release from federal custody. It’s unclear what exactly prompted her release, though she is wearing an ankle monitor.
Rodriguez’s cousin, Gabriel Dominguez, also spoke at the news conference.
“Going through that experience was just – it was the biggest gut punch we’ve faced together,” he said. “She’s my little cousin, and my job is to protect her, and to feel like I wasn’t able to do that is heartbreaking, and I know a lot of my family felt the same way.”
Rodriguez has a pending asylum case and is awaiting a court date.
“I don’t feel safe, but I do feel strength. I have resilience, and I have all these people supporting me,” she said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Rodriguez’s current status with ICE remains unclear.
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