08/13/2026
This week, ICE detained the elderly mother of one of our attorneys, Yesh Vasamsetty.
Yesh dedicates her days and nights to helping clients navigate the often overwhelming maze of our immigration system. Now, she and her family are facing that same system on a deeply personal level—a painful and harrowing reality no family should have to endure.
The detention of an elderly and vulnerable individual reflects a deeply alarming trend in immigration enforcement—one in which compassion, due process, and basic human dignity are increasingly being pushed aside.
Situations like this are a stark reminder of the systemic failures and arbitrary enforcement actions affecting families and communities every day. When individuals who pose no threat—especially elderly and vulnerable family members—are detained, it underscores the urgent need for justice, accountability, and meaningful legal protections.
We stand firmly with Yesh, her mother, and their entire family during this incredibly painful time.
ICEhttps://www.facebook.com/share/1J2mTMTZuk/
EDIT: A FEDERAL JUDGE HAS ORDERED A BOND HEARING HELD FOR VENKATA!!! FREEDOM IS ONE STEP CLOSER.
Cary Resident, A Grandmother and Teacher of Special Needs Children, Unlawfully Detained by ICE After Immigration Case Dismissed by Judge
Venkata Vasamsetty has held her green card in the United States since 2013. She’s a teacher with the Wake County Public School System, a homeowner, and a loving mother and grandmother. Her children and grandchildren are United States citizens. She is a small business owner. She pays her business and individual taxes on time. Her criminal record is nonexistent: she does not have so much as a speeding ticket to her name.
In July of 2022, Venkata traveled back to India to see her father, who was suffering from multiple severe medical conditions and getting frailer. While there, Venkata caught COVID-19. Her return to the United States was delayed longer than she had intended, and by the time she returned a little over seven months had passed. At the airport, DHS accused her of having abandoned her greencard by staying out “so long”. ICE gave her a date in deportation court, but initially allowed her to go home to her family while the proceedings played out. The only requirement was that she report to ICE’s Charlotte office on a regular basis.
Venkata attended every single ICE appointment. Her then immigration attorney filed paperwork with the immigration court, denying that she had abandoned her green card. A mound of documents proved that Venkata did not have the slightest intention of abandoning her residency, her home, her livelihood, or her family. DHS filed nothing. The immigration judge ordered DHS to file their evidence against Venkata by a certain date. DHS blew the deadline: no evidence that Venkata had abandoned her residency was ever filed in court.
On May 19, 2026 the immigration judge dismissed the case against Venkata. As of that date, she was no longer in deportation and kept her green card.
Unfortunately, Venkata still had a scheduled ERO check-in on July 11, 2026. Even though she was no longer in deportation, and should not have been required to attend any further appointments, ICE did not cancel them, and Venkata duly reported as she was asked. She attended her next appointment as scheduled on July 11, 2026, bringing with her a copy of the judge’s order dismissing her deportation case.
Instead of being told that she no longer needed to report, she was told to come back in another month, as ICE had “not updated their records”, and “the attorney wasn’t there” that day. On August 11, accompanied by her daughter, Venkata went into the Charlotte ICE office once more. She did not come out.
Venkata’s frantic family contacted my office that afternoon, after they were told their mother was being taken into detention. They were not told why Venkata, who is 59 years old, suffers from type 2 diabetes and requires regular injections of insulin, was being held, or where she would be taken.
Around 5:00 PM, we were told she was being taken to the notorious Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, recently reopened after having been shut down in 2021 following worrying reports of abuse and human rights violations. She was “encouraged” to “self-deport”.
This morning, August 12, my office filed an emergency habeas corpus petition on Ms. Vasamsetty’s behalf in the Middle District of Georgia. Habeas is the legal tool to compel the government, in this case DHS, to show on what legal authority they have detained someone, and to seek an order from a federal judge seeking release.
We fully intend to secure the release of Ms Vasamsetty as soon as possible.
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