A Congolese mother and two of her teenage children are returning to Portland after spending four months in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas, according to their lawyers.
Attorney Todd Pomerleau said the family is asking an appeals court to review a previous decision to deny their asylum claim.
“It’s about as valid of an asylum claim as I’ve ever seen,” Pomerleau said. “That it was denied was deeply troubling.”
He said he’s also trying to secure the release of the family’s third child, who is still in custody.
Carine Balenda Mbizi and her three children were detained in upstate New York in November after trying to seek asylum in Canada. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said at the time that Canada denied their claim under a safe third country agreement with the U.S.
Pomerleau said the appeals court has barred the government from deporting the family while their case plays out.
“We anxiously await oral argument in the upcoming months,” he said. “And just thank the community for supporting this family and helping fight for their cause, it means a lot to them.”
The family’s absence was felt deeply in the school and soccer communities in which they were active, and helped spark a student-led anti-ICE protest in December.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
