A North Texas woman detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a traffic stop is facing removal to Mexico, while her family races to find a lawyer before the deadline to appeal.
Lourdes Coronado was stopped in Flower Mound on May 8 for driving with a suspended licence and without vehicle registration, according to her family. Following her arrest, Flower Mound police contacted ICE and she was taken into immigration custody.
Coronado was subsequently transferred from Denton County to Dallas and then to an immigration detention facility in Oklahoma, her family said.
Family seeks lawyer to challenge removal order
An immigration judge denied Coronado’s request for bond on July 2, ruling that she posed a flight risk. On September 8, another immigration judge ordered her removed from the United States to Mexico.
She has until October 2 to appeal the removal order. Her daughter, Karen Gonzalez, said the family was trying to raise money to appoint an attorney before the deadline.
Gonzalez said she missed a call from her mother on the night of the arrest and had not seen her in five months.
“I’m just like maybe I could have prevented it. Maybe if I was talking to her, maybe she would have taken another route or something,” she said.
Gonzalez said her mother had lived in the United States for more than 30 years and had recently been approved for a work permit when she was detained.
“She had no criminal history. She wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Gonzalez said. “So it was what we thought would be a simple case.”
She added that her brother had been deported in 2019 and that Coronado was the only immediate family member she had left in the United States.
“We all bleed the same. We breathe the same air, you know. She has morals just as anybody else. She is a walking human being. She is not just a number. She is not just an immigrant,” Gonzalez said.
ICE says detention follows immigration proceedings
ICE said Coronado was arrested after being taken into custody by the Flower Mound Police Department for a Class C traffic offence.
The agency described her as a Mexican national who had entered the United States unlawfully and said she had no legal status to remain in the country. ICE said she was being held while her immigration proceedings continued.
ICE also confirmed that an immigration judge had denied bond and later ordered Coronado removed to Mexico. The agency said she had reserved the right to appeal and would not be removed while a timely appeal or other legal obstacle remained pending.
