Woman arrested by ICE at airport made to wear ankle monitor
The Ecuadorian woman whose arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Denver International Airport sparked national attention this summer is now challenging the agency’s decision to require her to wear an ankle monitor after she was released on bond, according to a federal court filing.
Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas, 27, filed an amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in Colorado, arguing that ICE unlawfully imposed an ankle monitor and other supervision requirements after an immigration judge ordered her release from detention without additional conditions.
The filing marks the latest development in a case that drew national attention after Morales Rojas was arrested by ICE on July 20 while preparing to board a Southwest Airlines flight from Denver to Oakland. Her detention came amid the Trump administration‘s expanded effort to identify and detain suspected visa overstayers, including through airport enforcement operations that The New York Times described as opening a “new front” in the president’s deportation campaign.
While electronic monitoring is routinely used in some immigration cases, Morales Rojas’ attorneys argue that ICE lacked authority to require her to wear an ankle monitor after an immigration judge ordered her release on bond without additional conditions.
The dispute could provide an early legal test of how far immigration authorities can go in imposing supervision requirements after release. Public interest in the case has been significant, a fundraiser launched following her arrest raised more than $137,344 on GoFundMe.
Newsweek has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and Morales Rojas’s legal team for comment via email.
Morales Rojas, a native and citizen of Ecuador, entered the United States in early 2023 on a J-1 exchange visitor visa to participate in an au pair program, according to court records. Her petition states that she remained in compliance with federal immigration laws and was lawfully present in the United States at the time of her arrest.
According to the filing, Morales Rojas had traveled from Oakland to Denver on July 16 to provide childcare for a former employer. Four days later, after passing through Transportation Security Administration screening and arriving at her departure gate, an ICE officer issued a Form I-200 administrative warrant for her arrest. She was detained after scanning her boarding pass for her return flight.
Once in custody, Morales Rojas was served with a Notice to Appear charging her as removable under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that applies to people who remain in the United States longer than authorized. Her petition disputes that allegation, arguing that the government incorrectly concluded she had overstayed her status and asserting that her J-1 authorization did not have a fixed expiration date.
She was subsequently held at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora.
On July 28, an immigration judge granted her release on bond, according to the filing. The petition says the judge’s bond order did not impose any additional conditions of release and did not authorize ICE to do so.
Despite that order, Morales Rojas alleges that ICE required her to wear an ankle monitor before she was released, instructed her to report to an ICE office in San Francisco and enrolled her in the agency’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, or ISAP.
Her attorneys argue that those requirements constitute ongoing restraints on her liberty and effectively subject her to what the petition describes as “constructive custody” even after an immigration judge authorized her release. The amended petition challenges both the legality of her initial arrest and ICE’s authority to impose monitoring conditions that were not included in the bond order.
The filing says that the agency’s actions violated Morales Rojas’ procedural and substantive due process rights by subjecting her to continued restrictions after her release from detention. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have not yet formally responded to the allegations in court.
A spokesperson for ICE previously told Newsweek that Rojas “entered the country on October 20, 2024, on a visa that would allow her to stay in the country until January 4, 2025. In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa.”
The court has not ruled on the merits of Morales Rojas’ claims.
In an order issued September 3, U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy P. O’Hara directed federal officials to show cause by September 10 why the amended petition should not be granted. The order also allows Morales Rojas to file a reply by September 15.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and James Debens
