Durham asylum-seeking family detained, deported after immigration check-in
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- Family detained at a Charlotte immigration appointment and deported in about 48 hours.
- Advocates say detention without phones denied them due process.
- State and local leaders will provide protective presence and request federal information.
A Durham-based family of four was detained by ICE at a routine immigration appointment in Charlotte on Monday and deported to Honduras, according to local officials and immigration advocates.
Two Durham public school students, Genesis, 11, and Denis, 6, and their parents, identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as Nelson Ramon Espinoza Sierra and Dacia Mariela Pacheco Galindo, had been in the U.S. for four years after seeking asylum in 2022.
The family had done “exactly what was asked of them” by regularly attending check-ins on their asylum status at an immigration office in Charlotte, immigrant rights group Siembra NC said at a news conference Thursday.
But on Monday, the children’s aunt was waiting to pick up the family from their appointment when she received a call from a private number. It was Immigration and Customs Enforcement, informing her that the parents and children had been detained.
“This family was lured to the check-in office under a false pretense of safety, and they were ripped away from their lives, from their school, and deported in about 48 hours,” said Andreina Malki, the defense manager for Siembra NC. “That should alarm all of us, because the children that are attending school in Durham can be kidnapped by agents through the back of a building in the middle of the day and deported after doing everything right.”
What the Department of Homeland Security says
In a statement on Friday, a DHS spokesperson said the family was deported after they “failed to show up for their [previous] immigration hearing,” and said they had no pending asylum claims or immigration applications at the time of their detainment.
DHS also said the family entered the country illegally in 2021.
“ICE does not separate families,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.”
But the family’s relatives maintain they “faithfully complied” with immigration officials in seeking asylum and had no knowledge of any missed appointments, according to Siembra NC organizers on Friday.
Siembra NC and local officials are decrying what they said was a lack of due process in the deportation, as the family was detained under the pretense of an immigration appointment and reportedly had no access to their cellphones after they were arrested.
It’s a pattern that’s become common in ICE’s deportation campaign in Charlotte. Agents have made arrests at a host of essential service sites, including health-care offices, a county courthouse, near a school, in the lobby of a federal immigration court and even in a church parking lot, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
But local officials are stepping in, said State Sen. Sophia Chitlik, who said she and other elected officials and local leaders will now provide “protective presence” by accompanying immigrants in the Triangle area to their immigration hearings or meetings.
“We will be witnesses, and to the extent possible, we can document what’s happening, and we will help to provide rapid response,” she said at the news conference.
Chitlik said she’s reached out to U.S. senators to demand more information on the family’s deportation and request data on how many other children and families had “disappeared” without due process because of ICE detainment.
“People who come here seeking asylum have a legitimate claim on harm in their home countries, so the risk of sending them back into an unknown environment is extremely high,” she said. “So I can’t really overstate how grave this is, how serious this is, and how concerned we need to be.”
In a statement to The News & Observer, Durham Public Schools spokesperson Crystal Roberts said DPS officials are aware of the family’s detainment, which she said occurred during the school’s spring break.
“We will continue to provide the essential support services our Burton Elementary students, families, and staff need during this unsettling time,” she said in an email. “We are certainly troubled by this event and will continue to keep the family in our thoughts.”
Genesis, a fifth-grader at Burton Elementary School, is a “hard worker who never misses school,” according to her teacher, Daniel Burton. In a statement read at the news conference, he described her as a “little scientist and mathematician” and a “smart young lady with a bright future,” urging community members to support her family.
“She is a giving little girl who sees with her heart, her character comes from her family,” he wrote in the statement. “They are loving, kind and work hard to support their children. They deserve our love and support.”
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This story was originally published April 9, 2026 at 6:32 PM with the headline "Durham asylum-seeking family detained, deported after immigration check-in."
