ICE Detains Longtime Houston Caregiver and Issues $1.8 Million Civil Penalty

On June 18 ICE agents detained Joyce Basele, a 64-year-old certified nursing assistant who had cared for a Houston family for years. A stay of deportation granted on July 23 prevents her removal while a humanitarian petition remains pending, but she remains in ICE custody at the Houston Processing Center, operated by CoreCivic.

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Basele entered the United States legally in 1995 on a visitor visa, returned on September 1, 2005 on an R-2 dependent visa, and complied with every required Department of Homeland Security (DHS) check-in for more than 14 years. After a divorce caused her status to lapse, an immigration judge ordered removal on June 22, 2011; the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed her appeal on June 20, 2012. She was placed on an order of supervision on August 13, 2012, allowing her to remain while checking in regularly. A Fifth Circuit petition for review was dismissed on November 28, 2012 for being filed after a deadline.

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DHS announced that, as of July 23, it had issued more than 103,000 civil fines totaling roughly $84 billion to immigrants who failed to leave after final removal orders. Penalties can reach $998 per day for non-voluntary departure.

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Attorney Leslie Giron Kirby argues the “willful” language conflicts with Basele’s 14-year supervised presence and questions the legality of imposing a multi-million-dollar fine on someone allowed to stay. She plans to appeal the assessment, noting that the fine would persist even if Basele were released. The family’s engineer, Maureen Mendrek-Laske, who voted for President Donald Trump, says the case contradicts her expectations of targeting criminal immigrants.

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• “I don't think this is really what I voted for if I was voting for immigration reform,” — Maureen Mendrek-Laske, a Houston-based engineer and mother of four

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• “It's difficult to reconcile the government supervising someone's continued presence for fourteen years with a claim that she 'willfully' refused to leave,” — Leslie Giron Kirby, attorney

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• “We have no family in the area. It's been the three of us, really.” — Maureen Mendrek-Laske, a Houston-based engineer and mother of four

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• “This is one case that I have seen that the government is going to every length that they can to try to deport this woman,” — Leslie Giron Kirby, attorney

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