The joy of getting out of prison after 19 years behind bars, for a crime she did not commit, was quickly overshadowed by Sandra Castañeda, who was immediately deprived of her liberty, this time by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
immigration officers were waiting to arrest her as soon as she walked through the gates of the women’s prison in Chino, California. And she was later taken to a federal detention center where she now faces deportation to Mexico, the country she left when she was 9.
“I’m stuck here. I have nothing to do during the day and I feel overwhelmed. It’s like no rules apply to them . They can do what they want“, declared the woman in an interview with the newspaper The Guardian.
Sandra’s life took a turn of 180 degrees on 10 May 2002, when I was driving a car in which I was traveling with several friends. The ride ended in tragedy when one of her companions pulled out a pistol and shot two people, wounding one and killing the other.
After the shooting, all the women who were in the vehicle fled, except for Castañeda, who was detained by the authorities.
Although the woman was never accused of pulling the trigger or planning the attack, she was sentenced to prison Life with the possibility of parole after 180 years.
The foregoing was given under a law in California that dictated that anyone involved in a felony that ends in homicide could suffer the same consequences as whoever committed it.
In July of last year, a court overturned Castañeda’s conviction based on a new California law that eliminated that rule that had led to unfair sentences .
Colby Lenz, a defender of the rights of imprisoned women, told Noticias Telemundo, that she was outside the prison waiting for Castañeda on 27 July 2021 to take her to her family, when a van full of ICE agents intercepted her and took her away.
At first the federal agents told her that they were going to allow her to follow her immigration process at home with an electronic shackle. However, she was later taken to a detention center in Georgia, away from everyone she knew.
Although Castañeda had permission to legally reside in the country, immigration laws allow the authorities deport non-citizens who are considered “a risk to the community.”
Anoop Prasad, an immigration attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, is currently fighting the deportation of Castañeda, who will appear back to a court hearing at the end of May.