What Happened
Martinez crossed into the U.S. from Honduras roughly 13 years ago with her oldest son, Deivys, and was given an expedited removal order. For over a decade, Cicely kept up with her ICE checks while raising three U.S.-citizen kids and working. That ended on Sept. 10, 2025, when she was detained during a routine ICE appointment and spent the next four months shuttled between Indiana and Louisiana facilities, where she says she was assaulted by other detainees and held well past the seven-day legal limit for her credible fear interview — 72 days, not seven.
She nearly missed that interview entirely. Her son’s email to attorney Duffy Trager, questioning her sudden transfer to Louisiana, prompted Trager to reach an ICE official who admitted that email alone had kept her off a deportation flight that same night. She was deported months later anyway.
