Metro

An immigrant from Ecuador seeking her release from Cambria County Prison while being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been granted a bond hearing.

The immigrant filed a federal petition last week requesting her release from ICE detention, leading to the order issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman in Pittsburgh.

The case involves a 28-year-old woman, Della Maria Garcia Pena, who fled to the United States to seek asylum because of discrimination against “a particular social group” in Ecuador.

Her New York attorney, Nneka Jackson, would not discuss the details of Pena’s life, but stated, “I am very happy she got a bond hearing.”

The petition, filed in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown, sought Pena’s immediate release from custody, but Stickman instead ordered that Pena receive a bond hearing before an immigration judge within 10 days.

The Stickman order, however, denied attorneys fees and expenses to Pena that have recently been awarded in immigration cases where detention was found to be unjustified under the law.

The government argued that Pena is considered an “applicant for admission” to the United States and that authorities (ICE and Homeland Security) were “substantially justified” in detaining her.

The Cambria prison serves as an ICE detention center, housing about 60 detainees.

According to court papers in the Pena case, she entered the United States in 2022 through the southern border near Ysleta, Texas.

She was confronted by Border Control on Oct. 2, 2022, and was charged “as an alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled.”

Pena was then released on her own recognizance.

She then filed an application for asylum with the Immigration Court.

It wasn’t until Dec. 19 of last year that she was re-detained and sent to Cambria County.

Pena and her attorney on March 10 filed a petition seeking immediate release from detention.

The petition stated, “This case challenges the government’s authority to indefinitely detain a non-citizen without any finding of dangerousness or flight risk.”

The petition charges, under the present circumstances, Pena faces detention “with no end in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

While ICE claims it has the authority to indefinitely detain Pena without a bond hearing under the Immigration and Nationality Act, Pena argues “indefinite detention pending removal proceedings violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment because it deprives petitioner of liberty without due process of law, and the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

Stickman, in reviewing immigration law, ruled that Pena “has a statutory right to an individualized bond hearing.”

The hearing date has not yet been announced, according to Jackson.

Stickman issued his order on March 19.

Pena’s petition contends the government must prove Pena is either a flight risk or a danger to the community — if bond is to be denied.