After six months in immigrant detention, 19-year-old Portland resident to be released

Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old asylum seeker and Portland resident, will be released this week from an immigration detention center in Texas where federal authorities held her for six months, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s office announced Wednesday evening. 

The announcement of her release came hours after Pingree and other Democratic members of Congress visited U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Dilley Immigration Processing Center and described the conditions as inhumane.

After learning about her imminent release, Pingree said, “Olivia should never have been left locked away in Dilley, far from her family, her community, and the life she was building in Portland.”

Andre and her family, who are originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were detained in November by border agents in New York after they attempted to seek asylum in Canada. Andre’s mother, Carine Balenda Mbizi, and two younger siblings were released from custody on March 18 after being held for four months.

According to Andre’s lawyer, Elora Mukherjee, a judge ordered that she must be released no later than Friday. 

“I just spoke with Olivia. She is overwhelmed with emotion to learn that she will be coming home to Maine,” Mukherjee said in a statement provided by Pingree’s office. 

“Olivia and her family should never have been detained. The federal court ordered her release because the Trump administration had no lawful basis for detaining her,” Mukherjee added. Andre’s family is asking a federal appeals court to review a previous decision in October denying their asylum claim.

Rep. Pingree demands ICE release 19-year-old whose family was freed last month

Dilley is the larger of two facilities in the country that hold immigrant families with children. 

“We need to close Dilley,” Pingree said in a statement after the visit Tuesday. “We need to close these facilities. There was nothing about the conditions that were humane — and it’s done with our tax dollars, in our name, and it has to stop.” 

Mukherjee said Andre “did not have access to sufficient clean drinking water, palatable food, or appropriate medical care,” leading to the deterioration of her mental and physical health during her six month detention.

The family’s detention had garnered the attention of the local community and broader activist networks. Classmates of her brother, Joel Andre, a Deering High School student, organized a rally in December, while the mutual aid organization Project Relief Maine has been raising money for the family and advocating for Olivia Andre’s release. More recently, Rachel Anne Accurso, known as the educator and prominent YouTuber Ms. Rachel, has used her platform to call for Olivia Andre’s release. 

“Olivia’s release is a testament to the power of public pressure, persistent advocacy, and the simple truth that no one seeking safety should be subjected to this kind of needless cruelty,” Pingree said. “Now, ICE must release Olivia without delay so she can be reunited with her family and begin to heal where she belongs: at home in Maine.”