A decision on whether to release detained Wayne County farmworker Dolores Bustamante should be made in the next 24 to 48 hours, a federal judge said Tuesday afternoon.
Bustamante — an outspoken advocate for the rights of undocumented workers — was detained last month during her scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Buffalo.
She was in court Tuesday in downtown Rochester for an evidentiary hearing before U.S. District Judge Meredith Vacca. The hearing focused on whether ICE detained Bustamante without the required notice and hearing. And if the government then rushed to deport her in retaliation for the media coverage that brought attention to her case.
“You don’t get notice of something you are not entitled to, which is liberty in this country after being ordered removed,” countered Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Kahlil.
Bustamante has been under a final order of removal since 2023, but was allowed to remain on supervised release. She crossed into the United States from Mexico since 2003, fleeing domestic violence. She and has lived in Western New York since 2012, has three living children — two of whom live locally, and seven grandchildren. She works on an apple farm, is active in her church and community and is facing "permanent exile" to Mexico, said Rhidaya Trivedi, one of three attorneys representing Bustamante in court on Tuesday.
“She had a right to be told there is a day and a time, and after that you will have to say goodbye,” Trivedi said. “There is nothing other than release that can remedy that.”
Bustamante testified that one of the first things agents said to her at her Buffalo check-in was that she was “famous.” Family, supporters and media had gathered outside the building, and she said the same agent later asked her who had called the press.
She spent three hours in the ICE office, but she said she was never told the reason for revoking her supervised release. She was taken to Ohio, then flown to a detention center in Louisiana. But she was delayed getting on and off the plane because officials kept finding her name was not on their list for people to transport.
“They decided to take her in, and they decided to do it so haphazardly that she wasn’t on the flight manifest to Louisiana,” Trivedi said.
During the nearly three-hour hearing, Vacca drilled down on procedural questions of due process.
“Their argument is she has no rights,” Trivedi said. “There is simply no way that passes Constitutional muster."
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
